Crushing Kagamin
by Yoshimizu Soup
Summary: When one of her pranks goes too far, Konata's quest to make nice with her Kagamin unlock some untapped feelings for her best friend. Soon Konata feels determined to win her heart before their last year at Ryoo High. Also featuring Lucky Channel! KonaxKagi
1. Chapter One: Prank Maker  Heart Breaker

Chapter One

Prank Maker ~ Heart Breaker

The lavender haired girl stroked her long pigtails nervously with her angular blue eyes fixed on nothing in particular. Cars zoomed by her noisily, their shiny metallic surfaces winking at her beneath the vibrant city lights. Her mind was totally blank as her fingers continued to work absently through her hair but her gut was all aflutter with butterflies. Her toes wriggled around nervously beneath her shoes and her every nerve tingled with a heightened sense of things. This was her moment. She was going to show everyone that she wasn't a total loser. She knew all along—way deep down her gut—that she wasn't as ugly the mirror told her. She was a desirable girl too like her mom and her sisters. Like Miss Kuroi. Like Miyuki. She was just as pretty as the rest of them. Her eagerness rose to a whole new level when she thought of how she would be able to go back to the hotel, her head help up high with her new boyfriend, and wipe that stupid smug cat grin off Konata's face. She would be so jealous!

Her heart skipped a beat when the constant drone of the cars passing by was disharmonized by the sound of shoe soles dragging across the pavement…dragging towards her and eventually coming to a sharp stop. Her head perked up, her eyes coming to life and displaying every ounce of euphoria her body felt at this most life-changing occasion.

A rather handsome looking boy stood before her dressed in a navy blue school uniform. She didn't quite recognize the boy but most of his features were difficult to make out in the luminescence of the city. Maybe it was just her but everything seemed to be glowing. Everything was perfect. The stars were out. The mood was just right. And the boy…perfect.

Not wanting to waste a minute, Kagami Hiiragi stood up from her bench eagerly; almost too eagerly as she noticed when she almost stumbled forward but she quickly regained her composure. She bit her lip nervously, hoping the boy had not noticed her clumsiness.

"Y-your note said in front of the hotel so I figured this was okay…" stammered Kagami, her body burning like a humid June afternoon.

The boy put a hand behind his head and another in his pocket, avoiding Kagami's gaze timidly which for some reason made him all the cuter. "I hope you weren't waiting too long," he said in a somewhat doting tone.

Kagami shook her head, even though she had been waiting for quite a long while after the agreed meeting time she could tell now more than ever that it was all going to pay off. "So…what did you want to talk to me about?" she said in an uncharacteristically soft voice that she did not intend.

The boy looked down, his hand still resting on the back of his neck as he fixed his eyes on his shoes. She wished she could see those eyes, she bet they were as handsome as his voice.

"Well I—I don't know how to say this…but I…"

Kagami's whole body tensed up as she drew a sharp breath of excitement. This was it! This was the moment she had waited all night—no!—all her high-school career for!

As the boy made his confession, she heard a passing car let out a long, drawn out honk that only made her ears want to hear more, causing every cell in her body to stir with incomparable excitement. And then…

The boy clapped both of his hands together in front of his face as he made a humble, pleading bow and cried out all too quickly: "I was wondering if I could have that doll!"

It took Kagami some time to process what her would-be confessor just said; both because of how quickly it was said and because of the unfathomably stupidity of what was said. "You want a doll?" Kagami said slowly in her natural cold voice, as everything that was beautiful about that night crumbled away like brittle cheese.

"Yeah!" the boy exclaimed, sounding as giddily excited as Kagami felt just seconds ago as he straightened out his back and held one finger up. Kagami couldn't help but notice how very unattractive this boy looked now. "You know. It's the one that you bought back at that shop in Kiyomizu Temple!" He gave Kagami a few seconds to stare at him in sheer disbelief before he elaborated further, as if what he was requesting was quite normal, saying, "The little Yatsuhashi doll!"

Kagami would have slapped him right then and there but she was so angry that she didn't really realize she was angry, much like when you touch something so ungodly cold that you think it feels hot. But whether she realized it or not that is what she felt in that instant. Ungodly fury.

"Yatsuhashi-kun?" she added, still in shock.

"Right!" confirmed the boy exuberantly. "That's him! I love that little guy! And I really want one but—but I was afraid of what the guys would say if they saw me buy it so…" he clapped his hands together again, resuming that begging pose he had earlier, "can I have yours? Pleease?"

"Oh…sure." She didn't know why she agreed. Her mouth was probably just saying whatever it thought would get this repulsive boy away from her the quickest.

His eyes lit up like a firework show and he wrapped both his hands around one of Kagami's and for one split second she thought maybe he was going to laugh and tell her it was a joke and that he was just nervous which is why he made up that stupid story about the Yatsuhashi doll and that he really did like her and that she really was beautiful. But her hopes were crushed yet again when the boy shook her hand up and down violently with a stupid grin plastered to his face. "Thanks a lot Hiiragi! I owe you one, man!"

"_Man?" _echoed a deadly voice in her brain, which was on the verge of snapping.

And with that he gave laughed happily and gave her the thumbs up before turning and leaving. As he walked away, he waved goodbye with his back facing her, not even having the courtesy to look her in the eye as he added, "Don't tell anyone about this, 'kay? Later!" It was almost like he couldn't wait to get out of there.

And then he was gone. Kagami didn't know where to nor did she care. She just stood there motionless, her face devoid of emotion as her spirits sunk to the bottom of her gut.

Konata watched the scene unfold from a nearby alleyway, bundled up in a heavy hood jacket that concealed her distinguishable long blue hair and cast a shadow over her emerald eyes. The only thing that could have given her away was the victorious cat like grin plastered on her face.

* * *

She chuckled at the sight of Kagami's vapid expression and as the boy she had been talking to drew closer she motioned to him, beckoning him to join her in the alley. His gleeful smile fell more abruptly than Kagami's spirits had and he shot the short, blue haired girl a dirty, dirty look. "You know, Izumi," he began in a sharp whisper, "there is a fine line between teasing and bullying and I think you just stepped way over that line.

They both went deeper into the alleyway, Konata disturbing a stray cat when she accidently treaded upon its tail. "Oh don't worry your pudgy little head, Satoshi-kun. Kagamin's a tough cookie. She'll be back to her normal scary self in no time."

The boy, evidently named Satoshi, looked back towards Kagami who was now sitting down with the same lifeless face. "I don't know…I almost couldn't do it. She looked so hopeful and excited. She practically tripped over herself when she got up to talk to me. It was…" he smiled dumbly from ear to ear, "…_moe_."

"Woah, down boy," chided Konata with a tiny frown. "And by the way, Satoshi-kun, you really need to start dieting. You're fat was blocking her face the entire time so I couldn't see her reaction. Ohhh I wish I could have been in your shoes! How was it? I bet she looked like she just got hit by a flash grenade!"

Satoshi sighed and sulked back into the alleyway, guilt weighing down his droopy shoulders. "I don't know. I guess you could say that. I was doing my best not to look directly at her face but she looked pretty…stunned." He slumped down against the wall, burying his head in his knees. "I feel dirty."

"There, there. You'll feel all better when we get back and I hook you up with the_ Staff of Oni-baba_."

Satoshi hung his head. "That doesn't make me feel better at all. I mean I just broke a girl's heart just to get a weapon in a video game. And it was a _real_ girl too! In _real _life! I'm not even sure I want the staff anymore," he whined.

Konata bopped him on the head. "Hey! I farmed all day and night by _Razorhead Caverns _waiting for that sonofabitch to drop. You should be kissing the ground I walk on whilst carrying my schoolbags after what I went through for you."

Satoshi perked his head up and gave Konata a look of disbelief. "Yeah that's been bugging me. Why would you work _that_ hard just so you could manipulate me into tormenting poor Hiiragi-chan?"

She shrugged her tiny shoulders in response, her cat grin unwavering. "It was just a bit of fun!"

Satoshi narrowed his eyes. "That was fun for you? What are you? Some kind of tiny…midget sadist?"

She gave him another bump on his head. "I won't bother explaining it to you, Satoshi-kun. I wouldn't expect a guy to understand my sophisticated tastes, especially one with a demon priestess that has no DPS whatsoever."

"D-don't make fun of my character like that! And besides, _you're_ the one that geared _me_! If my DPS blows it's because you do!"

Konata was about to offer a rebuttal when she heard a piercing yelp that was clear even from inside the narrow alley. She and Satoshi exchanged befuddled looks and poked their heads out from around the corner. "What was that? Did someone hit a dog?" said Konata; her tiny body crouched down beneath Satoshi's bulky one with their heads hovering only a few inches on top of each other as they craned their gaze from side to side.

"No I don't think so," replied Satoshi as he continued scanning, "I would've heard a—oh…"

"What?" She glanced up at him with her narrow eyes inquisitively and he just pointed over to the street corner where Kagami was sitting in her bench, a hand covering her eyes as her shoulders bobbed up and down with each whimper and yelp the pig-tailed girl made. Konata wasn't sure what she was looking at. Sure, she figured Kagami has gotten upset before. She'd even seen her get a little teary eyed about something as silly as putting on a few kilos. But she never expected, not in a million years, for the Kagamin she knew to have this kind of reaction to her harmless little prank.

"_What is this feeling?"_ she thought, her entire body going cold as a new and strange sensation overwhelmed her. _"Is this…guilt?"_

She watched as a young woman passing by stopped, lingering by Kagami's bench and regarding the lilac haired girl with concern.

"Um…Miss?" stammered the woman. "Miss? Are you alright?"

Kagami looked up at her and what Konata saw then left both her and Satoshi looking on completely slack jawed with alarm. There were…tears. Actual tears smeared across Kagami's crimson cheeks and more still leaking from her puffy eyes. Apparently, Kagami did not realize she was crying either because when she noticed the palm of her hand damp from her tears she gasped and sprang up, dashing away along the road and leaving both the girl and Konata feeling very perplexed.

"You…you made her cry…" gasped Satoshi. "I can't believe it, you actually made Kagami Hiiragi cry."

"M-me? You're the one that did it!"

"Don't you put this on me! I was just a pawn in this whole thing! _You _wrote the letter telling her to meet up here! Not me! This was all your idea!"

"I—well," Konata was actually having a hard time thinking of a comeback. "Y-you were the one who called her 'man'! Talk about tactless!"

"I was nervous! I couldn't help it!"

At that point they were both giving each other deadly glares but after a while Satoshi gave up with a sigh and looked off in the direction Kagami had ran off in. "Still think she'll bounce back to her regular old 'scary self'?"

Konata didn't answer for a while. For the first time in her life, she was actually seriously worried about Kagami and that worry was beginning to swallow up the better half of her thinking. "Y-yeah," assured Konata quickly as if coming out of one of her naps in Miss Kuroi's class, speaking more to herself than Satoshi, "she'll forget all about this. I'm sure she's really not all that upset anyway."

Satoshi raised an eyebrow at her.

"I mean I know she was crying but maybe she just stubbed her toe when we weren't watching or…or maybe…she's just…she's just…"

Satoshi shook his head hopelessly, "See this is why I don't hang out with you outside the gaming world. You're like a little boy crushing on the cute girl in his daycare class. Why don't you just sneak up behind her and yank her hair or wipe a booger on her sleeve? It'd be a much easier way of getting her attention than this."

Konata gave him a dangerously narrow look. "I really don't think you have room to talk when it comes to advice on getting dates."

Satoshi's frown deepened, displaying his overt indignation. "Okay you know what? To heck with you. I'm going to go find Hiiragi and sort this all out."

That last comment was enough to get Konata back to her old loud self. "No! No you can't! She'll kill us both!"

"No I gotta make this right. I'm going."

Before Satoshi's foot was out into the sidewalk, Konata pulled out her trump card. "If you tell her, you can kiss the _Staff of Oni-baba_ goodbye."

Her threat hit Satoshi like a semi, causing him to freeze in place and turn around with a murderous glare. "That's…but I already filled my end of the bargain. I helped you prank Hiiragi like we agreed! As a gamer, you have to come through!"

"Uh-bup-bup!" silenced Konata, wagging her finger. "Who said the prank was over? I never said it was over. And that means you still have to play along."

Satoshi looked at Konata, then to the sidewalk, then back at Konata. "Damnit…" he grumbled beneath his breath. "Fine, you win. I'll keep quiet. But honestly, Izumi, you're going to have to tell her sooner or later. No one's ever seen Hiiragi-chan really cry. You really hurt her bad."

Konata once again waved his comment away dismissively, apparently back to her old self. "Oh like you would know anything about hurting people. You hit like a feather when it comes to DPS."

Satoshi frowned, looking fed up. "You know it's seriously a wonder you have any friends at all, Izumi." And with that he made for the crosswalk and head back to the hotel, leaving Konata to her guilt ridden self.

* * *

_Lucky Channel!_

Akira: Hiya Luckies! Did you miss me?

Minoru: I'll bet they did! It's almost been four whole years since we wrapped up the anime in 2007. Can you believe it! Four years!

Akira: I know! Isn't it exciting? Although I'm kind of nervous since I haven't been on screen in such a long time…I bet you all can tell I've grown a lot since then…Can you guess where?

Minoru: Uhhh…Akira-sama? Akira-sama?

Akira: What is it, Shiraishi? Interrupting me in the middle of a pose isn't very polite…(Loud thump, followed by squealing from Minoru)…is it!

Minoru: Aghk! Of course not, A-Akira-sama. I just…didn't the producer tell you?

Akira: What? Whatever do you mean, Shiraishi? Tell me what?

Minoru: Th-that we're not going to be appearing on film?

Akira: Silly Shiraishi. We were never on film. We're only animated!

Minoru: Ah…I know. What I meant was…visually speaking we won't be appearing on the Lucky Channel segments anymore…ever

Akira: Oh so this is like our radio show?

(Long pause)

Akira: Hey!

Minoru: Well…not exactly…

Akira: Huh? What the hell is there other than the anime and the radio show? Are we showing up in the manga now? Figures. The show didn't really have anything going for it without our segment. I knew it was only a matter of time before Yoshimizu wrote us in.

(Long pause)

Minoru: Did you really not get the memo?

Akira: I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Minoru: W-we're in a fan fic.

Akira: …

Akira: What?

Minoru: Yeah…

Akira: A friggin' fan fic? About Lucky Star? People actually write fan fiction about that crap? It's an anime based off a four panel comic strip! What the f*** is there to write about?

Soup: Er…well Konata and Kagami have a strong yuri fanbase made of both males and females.

Akira: Who the flip are you!

Minoru: Oh that's right. Ehem. Ladies and gentleman let me introduce to you the author of this fan fiction: Yoshimizu Soup! (Applause from Minoru)

Soup: H-hey everyone! I'm Yoshimizu Soup! But you can all call me Soup if you'd like just so you don't confuse me with the original author of _Lucky Star_: Kagami Yoshimizu. Thanks for having me on the show by the way, guys.

Akira: Like we had a choice…

Minoru: _Anyway!_ Today's chapter was a pretty good start to this fic, don't you think so Akira-sama?

Akira: Pfft. Not really. He just ripped off a scene from the English Dub of the anime for the first half of it and the rest was just rambling garbage. I mean that whole schpeel between the OC and Konata about the MMO was just obnoxious.

Soup: Well I was trying to help the characters stay as close to their original selves as possible…

Akira: Yeah good luck with that. And what was with that "_You're like a little boy crushing on the cute girl in his daycare class,"_ comment? Oh gee. I wonder what he could be hinting at there? Yeah. Real subtle there, chief.

Minoru: Hey guys…

Soup: Um well… fan-finction(dot)net already tells the audience who gets paired together in the fic so it's not like I was trying to be subtle.

Minoru: Guys…

Akira: Whatever. And why did you even bother putting this in here?

Soup: This?

Akira: Yeah. This. This elaborate author's note. It's just annoying and you know no one's going to read it. What? Are you trying to jack up your word count or something?

Soup: That's not it at all! I'm merely just trying to stay as true to the anime as possible!

Minoru: Er…guys we really need to wrap this up.

Akira: So what are you going to do next? Are you going to start putting in the lyrics to the opening song of the show before each chapter for authenticity's sake? Or maybe you'll write lyrics to your own opening and start calling this "Lucky Star Season 2"?

Soup: …

Minoru: …

Akira: …Wait…were you?

Soup: N…NO!

Akira: Wow you're even more pathetic than Shiraishi…

Minoru: H-hey!

Soup: W-well that's all the time we have for today…I guess. Have any criticisms? Comments? Just wanna tell me how wonderful I am? Then leave a review and we'll be sure to address it in the next segment! I'll be refreshing my browser with unwavering dedication until one of you leaves a comment so be sure you make one soon I can get some sleep tonight!

Akira: Yeah…and be sure to tell him how freaking stupid this segment is too. Maybe he'll spare me the anguish and will leave us out of it next time.

Minoru & Soup: Byeeee!

Akira: F***ing schizophrenic retard.


	2. Chapter Two: Kagami  okaasan!

Chapter Two

Kagami-okaasan!

Konata was starting to get irritated. How hard was Kagamin going to make her look before she made her presence obvious? For the past two hours she had been combing the city streets within a one mile radius of the hotel, constantly dashing back and forth to her room on the fourth floor where she would always find Miyugi and Tsukasa resting beneath the sleep-inducing warmth of the kotatsu with half lidded eyes as they went on and on with idle conversation. But not once in the five or six times she barged into her room did she see any sign of Kagami. She would have asked someone for help—maybe one of her classmates and if it came down to it she'd even go to Miss Kuroi—but as Satoshi had pointed out it was sort of her fault her purple haired companion was missing she thought it'd be best to not bother the others with this.

And so, for the seventh time that night, she found herself sprinting down four flights of stairs with her long blue hair swishing behind her head with each sharp turn she made on the way down to the lobby. On her face was plastered a look of unyielding determination, one that could inspire both awe and fear. This quest to find Kagami started off as a guilt-induced one. After seeing the state she put Kagami in she knew she wouldn't be able to rest easy until she knew she was safe. But after she had made her third trip to and from the hotel, her noble quest for reconciliation was transformed into a conquest of sorts. She felt like Kagami had issued her a challenge by hiding so well from her and it was a challenge she meant to meet head on and to crush utterly. Normally it was very easy for Konata to track that girl down but tonight was…different. Maybe Konata was off her game? No, no that wasn't it. She hastily dismissed that unpleasant thought with a shake of her head. Kagami was just particularly…_on_ her game tonight.

She zipped down the last flight of stairs and burst through the door leading into the lobby, knocking down one of her classmates with the door but she only glanced back at her victim briefly as she raced on by.

"Ow!" he yelped, "H-hey! What the heck Izumi!"

"Sorry Sebastian!" she called back to poor Minoru as his classmates rushed to help him off the ground.

As she bolted out the front door, she just barely heard someone behind her say something "watching where she was going" or some such nonsense but it did nothing to affect her speed.

And with that the door closed behind her and she was once again released onto the streets, running about like a blue streak shooting through the dark, only stopping here and there to ask anyone if they had seen a girl fitting Kagami's description.

"…she's about yea high," went on Konata, sounding out of breath as she raised her hand way above her head to what she imagined Kagami's height would be, an older couple looking down at her with concern. "Blue eyes; purple hair tied up in pigtails—you know like a tsundere. You seen her?"

"Um…tsundere?" stammered the woman to her husband, looking embarrassed as though she should know this.

Normally, even Konata would have known better than to expect someone as old as the lovely couple before her to know what a _tsundere_ was but she was so tired at this point that her judgment was a bit skewed.

But the man was sharper than he looked, giving his wife a doting smile. "Yeah, that's right, Aiko. _Tsundere_. Remember? Like L*m Invader from _Urus** Yatsu**._" Konata's eyes glittered with newfound admiration for this man.

"Oh…L*m!" exclaimed the old woman, clapping her hands together in realization. "Oh Ken! Ken! I think I remember seeing a girl like that. Was she that sad looking thing sitting in the booth behind us in the café?"

Her husband smiled. "Well she seems to fit this young lady's description pretty well."

Konata perked up like a Blood Hound picking up a scent. "Café? Where?"

"Oh it's just up the road a few blocks," said the man, pointing behind Konata. "Can't miss it. It's got a big ol' sign saying _Wonder Café_."

"Wonder Café," repeated Konata with a curt nod, making a mental note of the name.

The old woman's eyes lit up excitedly. "Wonder Café? Oh! Oh! Ken! I love the Wonder Café! Can we go eat there tonight?"

He smiled at her patiently. "I know you love it, Aiko, that's why I took you to dinner there just now."

"You did?"

"I did."

"Oh…I guess you did. I forgot."

"Yes, you're forgetful, aren't you?"

"Huh? Forget what?...Who? Wonder Café? Oh! Today's my birthday!"

Konata felt her stomach churn unpleasantly. It wasn't moe when it came from the elderly.

"So it's just up the road there?" asked Konata hurriedly.

"Yup," the man nodded. "Just a few blocks. Would you like us to come with you and help you look, young missy?" He was looking at her with the same creepy twinkle in his eye her dad always got when playing is dating sims.

"N-no, thank you. I'll be fine." The man looked disappointed by her reply…almost too disappointed. "Well…thanks for your help."

Eager to bring her conquest to an end (and to get as far away from the old creeper as possible) Konata broke out running in the direction he had indicated until she came up on the café.

And behold! There she was! Konata pressed her face against the large glass window by the café's entrance, not taking notice of the alarmed stares of the patrons seated by the window, and she quickly spotted Kagami, pigtails and all, sitting in a booth in the far back of the restaurant staring introspectively into a bowl of ramen. A wide cat-grin etched its way into Konata's face, her narrowed eyes brimming with victory as now her quest was about to come to a close. But that was a feeling she only got to enjoy very briefly. Because now that she was here, now that she had actually found Kagami, she didn't know what she should do next. She didn't even know what her options were at this point. What had she meant to do once she found her?

She vaguely remembered something about reconciliation and about consoling a weeping Kagamin but really she seemed to be back to her old self just as she predicted.

"_Damn that Satoshi, getting me all worked up for nothing. She's fine! It's not like this is the first time she's gone out to eat by herself and well…she's eating (as usual). Now that's my Kagamin! Tough as nails!" _Her frown deepened, that stubborn conscience of hers kicking into gear as it so rarely did. "_But…I guess what I did to her was pretty mean. Still though, I didn't mean to make her cry! She totally doesn't know how to take a joke. Then again…I guess she really didn't know it was a joke so I can kinda' see why there'd be room for crying. But how was I supposed to know she'd take it so seriously? Kagami never seemed like one to get all jerked up over a guy. Especially one as ugly as Satoshi! Gah! It's her own darn fault for always concealing her inner _dere_ around me! I knew she had a soft side but I didn't know it was _this_ soft! I totally never would have done had I known!" _

She was so deeply engrossed in the point/counter-point raging on inside her head that it took her a while to notice Kagami was now waving over to her excitedly from inside the café, looking unusually happy to see her.

"_Oh no! She saw me! Okay, okay, okay! I need to abort! Abort! I honestly think I can only do more damage at this point! She can't be sure that it's me, right? I mean it's not like I'm wearing my school uniform right now so I could pretend to be someone who just looks like Konata Izumi! Yeah! After all, studies show most people have an exact copy of themselves walking around somewhere in the world. Who's to say mine's not in Kyoto?" _

Poor Konata nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the café door open with a little _ring-a-ling_, followed by a cheerful greeting form Kagami who she had not even noticed get up from her booth and walk outside.

"Heeeey you!" chimed the lavender haired girl as she approached her little otaku friend. "I was waving at you for a while in there, didn't you see me?"

Konata finally removed her face from the glass, looking astonished by her own obliviousness. _"Damnit! That's why I don't like thinking! It's way too distracting!"_

Kagami shot her a reproachful look when she took note of Konata's horrified expression. "What's up with you?"

* * *

And so, left with no alternative, an unnaturally bubbly Kagami lead Konata back into the café who drug her feet all the way until they sat down at Kagami's booth in the corner of the restaurant.

"So seriously Konata, what's up with you? I can't imagine you came all the way out here just for a bite to eat," said Kagami before slurping up some ramen, which, judging by the amount of liquid left in her bowl, was probably her first spoonful.

Konata almost forgot for a second that Kagami had no idea it was her who had set up the mock confession. At this point she could now see two options before her. She could either go with her gut, playing it stupid to avoid facing Kagami's wrath or she could go with what Satoshi told her and try to sort this whole business out so as to not cause her purple headed friend further distress.

She decided she'd do the right thing…

"Well no one had seen you for a while so I just decided to pop out and make sure everything was on the up-and-up. And I could be asking you that same thing, Kagamiiin~. What are you doing out here all by your lonesome little self? Hmmmm?"

…or leastways what she felt was the right thing.

"Stop calling me lonesome," snarled Kagami playfully. "But you know how I get around big crowds sometimes. I got so sick of spending all day with our noisy class I decided some alone time would do me good, you know?"

No, Konata did not know. In the three and a half years they had known each other since their first year at Ryoo High she had never known Kagami to actively seek solitude. In fact, she felt that she knew her Kagamin well enough to say it was quite the opposite. She hated being alone. "So if this is supposed to be your alone time then why did you look so happy to see me earlier? Huh, Kagamiiin~?" cooed Konata.

"W-well…," in her usual Kagami way, the lilac haired girl's eyes darted around frantically in their sockets as she tried to think of some kind of defense. Then she just let out a small sigh of defeat and itched her cheek nervously, "yeah okay I guess I was feeling a little lonely. Don't make a big deal out of it."

"Knew it," said Konata triumphantly with her cat-like grin returning in full force as she let her head plop down on the tabletop, her eyes fixed on Kagami as she enjoyed her ramen. But once again, her conscience refused to let her revel in the moment for long. It kept reminding her that deep down she knew that Kagami deserved to know the truth about what happened that night with Satoshi. Konata owed her friend that much, thinking back to the night of that concert when Kagami had traded seats with her short little friend so she could see better. And what really had confused Konata that night was that Kagami didn't seem to mind switching seats with her at all and she didn't even have to ask her. It was just in her nature to look after her friends like that and it was that quality of Kagami's Konata admired most deeply.

Her narrow eyes softened as the guilt really began to eat away at her soul and as usual Kagami was quick to notice something was out of sorts.

"Konata?" she said in a gentler voice she normally reserved for Tsukasa. "Are you feeling okay?"

Her green eyes drifted upwards and locked with her blue ones. She knew what she had to say, she knew how to say it, she just couldn't bring her mouth to get down to the saying part.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" said Kagami with a nervous chuckle. She was accustomed to being stared at by Konata but she could tell just by looking at her face that something was very wrong.

"Well…actually Kagami…" She perked her head up and smiled playfully. "You do got a bit of noodle right _there_." Her tiny hand reached across the table and she placed a finger directly beneath Kagami's lip where a stray ramen noodle was clinging to her skin. "Woah! You sure got a soft face Kagamin. Must be from all those rice-cakes! Is your diet not going so well?"

And then Kagami did something Konata did not intend. She just laughed. It was a sad, melancholy sort of laugh too that was so forced that it hurt. Kagami then wiped away the noodle and flicked it aside, looking as though she had lost her appetite. "Hey Konata…" she began, her eyes fixed on a cardboard cutout of a certain pink-haired idol standing up in the middle of the café with the words "CAUTION! WET FLOOR" scribbled hastily on it. "You don't…really think I'm that chubby do you?"

Konata regarded her with serious concern. Kagami had never questioned the playfulness of her teasing before and it wasn't hard to guess why only now she was starting to take it seriously. "Um…where's all this coming from, Kagami?" As if she didn't already know.

She sighed, pushing her ramen bowl away from her and cradling her chin in her palms with her elbows resting on the table. "I don't know…I was just so excited when me and Tsukasa first got our acceptance letters to Ryoo High because, aside from it being a good school and stuff, I figured from watching T.V. shows and stuff that High School was like _the time _for guys to confess their love to girls so I was pretty sure that by my senior year I'd have had at least one boyfriend somewhere along the line. But I haven't even gotten a guy to confess to me yet. Not even once." Kagami could hear her voice begin to tremble as she finished her sentence, the sting of Satoshi's "confession" still fresh in her mind. She could feel Konata trying to catch her eye as she kept her gaze fixed on the cutout but for some reason Kagami was scared to look at her. She had been hoping that night she could go back to the hotel, arms locked with her new boyfriend so she could finally wipe that mocking little cat grin off her face—the same cat grin she always made when her weight came up in the conversation. She just didn't want to see that smile right now. She didn't think she would be able to fend off the waterworks if she did. However, when she did chance a look at her blue haired friend she was surprised to see a look of deep contemplation on her face.

Suddenly, Konata slammed a hand down on the table and, with a deep red blush on her face; she got up out of her seat and leaned in so her nose was mere inches away from Kagami's. "Okay look Kagami, what I'm about to tell you is…kind of…embarrassing so you can't breathe a word about it to anyone! Got it!"

"Well I won't have to tell anyone if you don't keep your voice down. Seriously, people are staring."

Konata eased back into her seat, her face still flushed as a small angular frown further displayed her unease. "Okay, okay fine. Just…promise you won't tell the girls about this, 'kay? I've got a reputation to uphold."

Kagami was starting to think that Konata might actually have something actually meaningful to say this time. She tensed up in her seat, leaning in with an intrigued yet impatient look on her face. "Fine, fine. If it makes you feel any better I'll pinky swear to it or whatever floats your boat."

Konata crossed her arms, still not looking totally satisfied. "And you have to also promise you can't treat me any different after I tell you this."

Kagami blinked slowly, her interest peaking. "Oh-okay…" Just where was Konata going with this?

All promises now being finalized, Konata stared intently at the salt-shaker, picking it up in her hands and dashing some of it on the table top before she began mindlessly twirling her finger around the tiny mound of salt. "The reason I sometimes pick on you because of your weight is…that…that…"

Kagami leaned in on the edge of her seat, waiting breathlessly for Konata to continue. "What? What?"

She took a pinch of salt in her fingers and rubbed it together. "…It just really pisses me off when you complain about not being pretty enough…"

Kagami's engrossed expression disappeared so fast that it was almost comical. "Huh? My being upset about my weight bugs you?"

"Well…yeah! Some people would kill to have your looks, Kagamin!" She lowered her head, her blush intensifying as she went on under her breath. "I mean sure you could do with losing a little weight but still…it's not like having a _little_ extra flab excuses your pretty face or your figure. It pisses me off."

A few moments of silence passed as Kagami watched Konata fiddle fixedly with the salt. She felt quite…touched, much to her surprise. Even though Konata had still called her slightly cubby at the end of her statement there was a compliment somewhere in there, and a compliment from Konata Izumi was a hard thing to earn. _"Well, that's Konata for you,"_ thought Kagami fondly. _"The best and worst thing about her is that no matter how close you get to her she'll never bother wasting her time with flattery…unless she wants something from you but I don't think that's the case here."_

"Wow Konata," chimed Kagami suddenly, breaking the silence with a cocky grin, "if I didn't know any better I would have said you just called me 'pretty' right there."

"Surprised?" Konata said, returning her smile. "Really, Kagami, maybe I should switch gears from making fun of your weight and start making fun of that awful self-esteem you got there. I mean honestly! I shouldn't have to be the one to remind you that you're good looking."

Kagami blushed. Two compliments from Konata? And within only a few minutes of each other? She was going to start getting overwhelmed if this kept up. "Awww c'mon I'm not that pretty."

Konata opened her eyes wide and shot her a critical stare from across the table, her green orbs scanning her up and down like she was sizing her up. "Hmmmm…yeah, you're right. I guess you aren't that pretty after all. What was I thinking?"

Kagami's eyes narrowed dangerously. "H-hey!"

"Ohhh I kid! I kid!"

The two girls chatted the remainder of their evening away aimlessly, talking about frivolous things as usual but that was enough to help each of them forget what happened that night at least for a little while. When the time came for Kagami to pick up the tab she barely had any recollection at all of Satoshi-kun's "confession" and likewise Konata had nearly forgotten she threw that whole business together. And so the two of them were able to walk out of the restaurant in high spirits, smiling and laughing as the brisk night air came to meet them.

"…and it's so stinky!" cackled Kagami, resting both hands on her knees for support as she laughed so hard tears began swelling up in her eyes.

And then Konata remembered. Tears. She had made Kagami cry earlier.

Soon Kagami noticed Konata had another one of those far-off looks on her face. "Konata?" she said, rescuing Konata from getting lost in her self-incriminating thought. "Are you sure you're alright? You've been acting kind of weird all night. Well…weird for you anyway."

"It's nothing," assured Konata, giving her the best smile she could. "I'm just kind of tired is all."

The wizened tsundere shook her head hopelessly. "You know, whenever someone says 'it's nothing' chances are it actually is 'something.' C'mon, Konata, just tell me what's been bugging you. You're starting to worry me with how you keep staring off into space."

Konata bit her lip nervously. Should she tell Kagami what she did? Could she even bring herself to say it? Kagami was her best friend. She should be able to tell her anything but… did Kagami count _her_ as her best friend? And if she did, wouldn't that make what happened tonight look all that more like a betrayal of their friendship?

"Hey Kagamin…you know I really don't mean it when I tease you, right?"

"Hm? Well yeah I guess I do."

"And…you know I really do like you, right?"

Kagami cocked her head to the side, confused. "Are you being serious, Konata?"

"I'm being totally serious! Kagami, you're probably the best friend I've ever had. I know sometimes I don't act like it but I really can't imagine high school being as much fun if Tsukasa hadn't introduced me to you."

Kagami snickered playfully. "You mean it wouldn't have been as much fun if I wasn't around to tease all the time? Or how you probably would have failed out without having me to copy homework off of?"

"I meant besides those things. Jeez, Kagamiiiin~. I'm trying to be serious with you here. Don't ruin it."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This is just so unlike you."

"Whatever. Can I please continue?"

"I'm all ears," said Kagami with a smile, finding all this slightly funny much to Konata's outrage. "But just to be sure you're not messing with me, what about me do you like other than how easily I give in to you copying off my homework?"

Konata's face hardened, her fighting spirit feeling challenged by Kagami's question. "Oh that's an easy one! You're like the mother I never had."

Kagami's body and face went rigid. She had not been expecting that. "Your…mother?"

"Mmhmm," affirmed Konata with a nod, "I mean it's not like I felt like I was 'lost' without my mom there to raise me. Dad did a fine job on his own. But…I don't know. Looking back on the days before Ryoo High I can think of a few times when it would have been nice to have a mom to help me do stuff, and not just helping me with homework. Sometimes dads just don't understand the finer points of womanhood, you know? To be honest, I never really felt like I missed my mom that much 'cuz I barely knew what it was like to have one but when I started hanging out with you I was a little sad because I realized how much I've been missing out all my life without my mom or someone like you."

"S-someone like me?"

"Yeah. In addition to being the tsundere of our group you're also the motherly type! I guess since you had to look out for Tsukasa for most your life it just came naturally to you, huh?"

"But that's different! Tsukasa's my little sister. I'm not…motherly to her or to anyone!"

"Oh don't kid yourself, Kagamin," said Konata, holding up a finger in an explanatory fashion. "You fuss over Tsukasa all the time—you probably don't realize how much. And it's not just Tsukasa you fuss over; you do it to me too. You're always telling me to do my homework, scolding me for playing too many video games or watching too much anime or for staying up too late. You have that wet-blanket quality my dad always said my mom had. It was actually my dad that first said you sometimes reminded him of Mom with how you scold me so much. She'd bug him about stuff like games and anime too!"

Kagami thought she tasted a bit of vomit when she heard that last bit. _"I remind Mr. Izumi of his wife?" _she shuddered involuntarily. _"C-creepy."_

"I guess what I'm trying to get across is…even though I sometimes do awful stuff to you and make you mad I don't know what I'd do if you decided you didn't want to…you know…be my friend anymore."

Kagami smiled assuredly at her friend, suddenly feeling a little bad for laughing at her earlier. "Oh c'mon Konata, I wouldn't leave you just because you tease me sometimes. It's not like you've done anything _awful_ to me before."

There was a long pause that Kagami did not find very reassuring. "Well…" began Konata, rubbing the back of her head.

"Yeah? Well what?"

"Well…nothing. I just want you to know that, in the future if I do end up doing something really bad, I really do value your friendship a lot. I'd even trade most of my manga for it!"

"Most of?"

"Don't ask me to choose Kagami; I'm not ready for that yet."

Kagami smiled at the red-faced otaku, knowing how hard it must be for her to be this open with her or with anybody for that matter. She was touched. It was like Konata somehow sensed how miserable she had been feeling that night and she knew just what to say to make her feel better. And without even really thinking about it, Kagami soon found herself stepping forward and pulling Konata in for a warm embrace.

"Thank you, Konata," she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "I don't think you realize just how much I needed to hear that right now. Tonight's been…kinda' weird for me. And for what it's worth, I may not think of you as a daughter or anything but you've always kind of been like another little sister to me. You can get on my nerves like only a little sister can but you also make me feel good like only a little sister can."

Konata's blush was searing her face like a hot iron as her tiny body was pressed against hers. "K-Kagami? What are you doing?"

"Aw c'mon. What's a hug between friends?" said Kagami with a warm smile, looking down on her little otaku friend fondly.

Konata, on the other hand, did not look to be enjoying herself. The muscles in her face were tense and her whole body was racked with a heat of the likes she had never felt before. She had never been this close to Kagami before neither physically or emotionally and it was too much for her tiny body to take all at once. Come to think of it, she couldn't remember a time anyone had hugged her like this before other than her dad. It was not an unpleasant sensation—to share this warmth and closeness with someone else for a change—but it wasn't something she was familiar with. Slowly however she found herself relaxing in Kagami's embrace, feeling quite content. But before she could make a move to return the hug, Kagami pulled away with broad smile on her face.

Suddenly Kagami felt all her troubles slowly melt away from her when she saw the smile on Konata's face. So maybe she hadn't gotten her dream guy tonight like she had always hoped. Maybe the day when she finally would wasn't meant to come for a long time. But until that day did come, she would always have a best friend to help her through it.

"_Best friend," _she echoed back in her head. _"That has a nice ring to it." _

"C'mon," said Kagami, turning up the road from whence they came. "We better get back to the hotel before Miss Kuroi sends a search party out for us." Kagami had taken a good dozen paces forward before she realized Konata was still frozen in the same spot. "You comin'?"

Konata awoke from her daze, still blushing for reasons unknown even to her, but when she saw Kagami waiting for her to join her at the end of the sidewalk she let the tension roll off her and returned to her bubbly self. "Coming Kagami-okaasan!"

"H-hey! Don't you start calling me that!"

* * *

_Lucky Channel! _

**Akira:** Hiya Luckies! Well the second chapter is out at last but I'm sure most of you scrolled ahead to skip to the good part, didn't you! The part of this fic that gives your otherwise bland and empty lives some meaning!

**Minoru:** Oh? And what part would that be, Akira-sama?

**Akira:** Silly Shiraishi! Do you even have to ask? It's the part with me in it of course! And sitting next to me here is our…acquaintance and co-host: Mr. Yoshimizu Soup!

**Minoru:** Huzzah!

**Soup:** Hello again everyone! I'm the author of this lil' fic: Yoshimizu Soup! I'm still not quite used to all this writing stuff so really I'm just hoping you all cared enough to read the main-segment.

**Akira:** Ooohhh! Looks like someone has got self-esteem issues!

**Minoru:** Well I thought that today's chapter was just swell!

**Akira:** …_Swell? _

**Minoru:** Mmmhmm! You can really see the romance between the characters starting to heat up!

**Soup:** Well thank you. I tried to be as subtle with the romance as I could here too. Just like any relationship, I think it's more interesting when you just take things slow.

**Akira:** Yeah…reaaaal slow.

**Soup:** Uh…something wrong, Akira-sama?

**Akira:** Yeah, something _is_ wrong. I mean, do you honestly think anyone's going to stick with this story if they have to burn through like thirty chapters just for the romance to actually start?

**Soup:** Er…well I don't think I'm going to take it _that _slow but—OW! Hey that's my typing hand!

**Akira:** Do not interrupt me when I'm critiquing!

**Soup:** But you asked me a question…GAKH! My other typing hand! Where were you even keeping that cane!

**Akira:** What did I just say!

**Soup:** To…to…to not—

**Akira:** HUH!

**Soup:** To not interrupt you, Akira-sama!

**Akira:** Good boy…As I was saying. The folks on fan-fiction(dot)net care about one thing and one thing only and that's seeing their two favorite characters paired together; especially if they weren't paired together in the original show. That being said, it doesn't matter if a slower transition from friendship to romance is more realistic. That tactic will only lose you readers and fast. Take my advice, kid, if you want to keep them following this story then you gotta' make the character's love for each other more obvious!

**Soup:** Right! Got it!

**Akira:** Good…And now I think it's time to address the fans!

**Minoru:** Oh that's right! Thanks for reminding us, Akira-sama! And thank _you,_ our treasured readers, for taking the time to fill out a review! Namely we would like to thank _Gonstika, FanFicAA, Hyperkinetic-Rabbity-Thing, Kitmaro, Arch3rher0, and OtakuGirl_(s)_357…_and I say OtakuGirl(s) because I read your profile and I'm not really sure how many of you there are. I would also like to take this time to assure Mister or Misses _Arch3rher0_ that the OC Satoshi will not be playing any major role in this fic and that Soup will try his best to continue to produce quality Lucky Channel segments.

**Soup:** I sure will! My very best! And we would also like to extend a pseudo word of thanks to username _ItzuMizu _for leaving us a pseudo review! Minoru, could you please remind me to disable anonymous reviews later today?

**Minoru:** I will not fail you, Soup-kun!

**Soup:** I know you won't! C'mon! Gimme a high-five!

**Minoru:** Yeah! (clap) The power of friendship!

**Akira: **Pfft!

**Minoru:** …

**Soup:** Uh…do you have something to say to the fans too, Akira-sama?

**Akira:** Nope. I just don't know why you two schoolgirls are so excited.

**Minoru:** Schoolgirls?

**Akira:** I mean, it's not like the fan-fiction(dot)net community is hard to impress or anything. I wrote my fair share of fics back when I was a kid and let me tell you: they're all a bunch of push-overs.

**Minoru:** A-A-A-Akira-sama! Those are our fans you're talking about! The lifeblood of this fic!

**Akira: **Oh don't pretend like you haven't noticed it too, Shiraishi. So long as you're able to write at above a third grade level someone will be nice enough to leave a sugar-coated review. And the reason you almost never see any bad comments is because if someone hates your story they aren't going to take time out of their day to tell you. It's just not worth it. Unless of course your fic _really_ blows.

**Minoru:** Uh… '_blows'_ is really not a ladylike word to use…

**Soup: **Yeah! And besides I'm sure each and every one of our readers pours their hearts and their souls into their reviews! Not only for our fic but for every fic they follow! It's part of their duty as readers and patrons of the fan-fiction arts!

**Akira:** Mhmmm. Suuure it is. Which reminds me, Soup-kun, this review for chapter one came in just last night. Thought you might want to take a look at it.

**Soup:** Huh? An eighth review? Why are you just showing it to me now?

**Akira:** Ohhh no reason. I just thought you'd want to read it in front of your "fans" is all.

**Soup:** O-okay. That's a good idea! Ah! It's from a _Flygon Master_.

**Minoru:** Flygon? You mean like the _Po**mon_?

**Soup:** Guess so. _Flygon Master_ writes, _"__I hate to be the one to crush all you're hopes and dreams but... It wasn't that good in fact I didn't like it at all, and here is why.__You made Konata freakin' evil. She could not be that mean to a marshmellow, yes she picks on Kagami but it's out of fun and friendship. There is no way she would ever do something like that, you went way out of charater... If someone did that to Kagami, Konata would beat the sh** out of them, so sorry but totally wrong."_

**Soup:** …

**Akira:** Wow, he showed you. Surprised that not everyone just _loves_ your fan-fic?

**Minoru:** Oooo, that was harsh. But you can't win them all. That's something that you gotta' accept if you're going to make it in this business.

**Akira:** Yeah but he does have a point. Konata's little prank was _totally_ out of character.

**Soup:** …I…can't believe it. I've never gotten a review like this before.

**Akira:** Well hang on I'm sure they're plenty of more to come.

**Minoru:** There, there buddy! Don't take it too hard. Sometimes you just can't help disappointing some people. Uh…Soup?

**Soup:** Disappointing? I'm a disappointment?

**Minoru:** Well I never said you were a "disappointment" but—

**Soup:** Disappointment. I'm a disappointment. But am I really that much of a disappointment? Have I disappointed you that much, Father? Do you think this is fair, Father Dearest?

**Minoru:** W-what? Father?

**Akira:** Oh no! It looks like _Flygon_ broke his brain!

**Soup:** So what if I don't have the same tastes in manga as you, _**DAD**_! So what if I don't like_ G*rr*en Lag*nn, Rur**ni K**shin, H*gh Sch**l of the D**d, Dr*g*n B**l Z, _or _Ikki**sen_! Anime is more than just mechas, Super Saiy*ns, big explosions, boobs, violence, guns, and panty-shots ever five or six frames!

**Minoru:** Hey Soup-kun! Snap out of it!

**Akira:** It's no use. He's too far gone.

**Soup:** Anime needs to have some _feeling_ to it with characters I can _feel_ for and not to mention a plot that goes beyond exploiting blood, guts, moe urges and the female anatomy! And _K**nshin _and _Dr*g*n B**l Z _were both just too damn long!

**Minoru:** S-Soup-kun! Let go of me! I'm not your Dad! GAH! Hey! Those were my mother's earrings!

**Soup:** I just don't like animes that drag on for more than fifty episodes, DAD, because friggin' _Megav**eo _only lets me watch so many hours of footage a day and I get tired of waiting 12 hours after each bullsh*t cliffhanger those shows leave me off at! So what if I enjoy shows like _L*cky St*r _and _Az**agna Da**h_? Just because the girl characters aren't constantly flashing their bra and panties at the screen doesn't make me gay! I'm your son, damnit, the only one you got and changing the locks on the doors, barring the windows and leaving me stuck outside in the freezing rain isn't going to change that! And another thing, I—! (Clang!)

**Minoru: **…

**Akira:** Whew!

**Minoru:** A-Akira-sama! You could've knocked his head clear off with that bat!

**Akira:** Trust me, Shiraishi, if I wanted to decapitate him I would've. Besides, it had to be done. He was stealing the show.

**Minoru:** But there won't be any show if the writer's dead!

**Akira: **He'll be fine, he'll be fine. Now, Shiraishi, let's finish this segment on a high-note!

**Minoru: **R-right! The show must go on! Ehem! On behalf of Soup-kun I strongly encourage you, O' dearest reader, to tell us what you thought of today's chapter! Got any questions for the three of us or about the segment or any suggestions on how to make it better? Then don't hesitate to shoot us a review and we'll be sure to address it by next chapter!

**Akira:** Oops! Looks like time's all up for today! Don't forget to tell us what you thought and please don't forget me, I wanna' know how you think I did too, 'kay?

**Akira & Minoru:** Byeeee!


	3. Chapter Three: Totally Embarrassing

Chapter Three:

Totally Embarrassing

A lingering pain was plucking on Kagami's heart strings as she stood by the railing with her long purple pig tails dangling freely over the edge. She saw the happy couples down below, across the river from her and she was extremely envious of each and every one of them. Last night, she had been so sure that she was going to be just like one of them by now: blissfully wasting away her free day in Kyoto with her new boyfriend as they got to know each other. Maybe he would have taken her out to lunch where they could have split a huge ice cream sundae meant for couples, or maybe they would have gone up to one of Kyoto's love shrines and have their love blessed, or maybe they could have just gone to sit down by the riverside with the other couples, holding hands and snuggling by the rushing water, or maybe—well Kagami could have gone on and one about what she and her would be boyfriend _would have_ done but none of that really mattered because of the _would be_ part.

"_Gah! I can't believe I'm letting this get to me again!" _she groaned in her head, a distant expression on her face as she continued to observe the couples longingly. _"Can't I just look on the up-side for once? I mean, it's not like I'm going to be spending my free day alone. I got Tsukasa and the others to keep me company. Now, Kagami, you got to chin up and enjoy yourself while you still have the—" _She was about to dethatch herself from the railing and join her friends behind her when she saw one of the young men below kiss his girl bashfully on the cheek, quickly pulling his head away and staring up at the sky with a red hot blush on his face Kagami could see from all the way across the river. Then, her resolve wavered and she let herself relax against the railing again with sadness hidden behind her blank blue eyes. As if on its own accord, her fingers went up to her cheek and began stroking her skin gently as she imagined how wonderful it would have been to be that girl right then and there. What she would have given to have traded places with her even if for just a while.

From behind her, Konata was watching the whole scene at a side-glance, not wanting the others to notice the forlornness Konata had no doubt afflicted on her friend. In her head, she sighed hopelessly. _"Jeez, Kagamin sure is fickle. She seemed perfectly fine when we went back to the hotel together last night. She was a happy Kagamin~! But ever since she woke me up this morning she's been acting totally gloomy…" _She could just barely hear a sigh pass through Kagami's lips that she would not have been able to detect had she not been listening, especially since Tsukasa and Miyuki were both going on about the dentist in her other ear. _"Boo. A sad Kagami is very un-moe. She was so bubbly last night. It's hard to believe this is the same girl!" _Konata narrowed her eyes, entering a state of critical thought. _"What to do…what to do…what to do with a Kagamiin that's stuck in the gloom? Well she seemed pretty happy last night when we were just talking like normal. Maybe if I just get her to join in on the conversation she'll—No, no. Not good enough. I don't want her getting all droopy faced whenever we're not around. Hmmm…"_ Konata looked to a nearby grandfather clock sitting behind a window in an antique store. _"Meh. Our train's going to be leaving soon. If we don't hustle I'll never have time to do all the stuff I want in Shinkyogoku. I'm sure the hallowed grounds of _Kyoto Animation _will help me think of some way to cheer up Kagamiiin~!" _

Suddenly, the blue haired otaku piped up. "I figured out the directions to get there!" she chimed; even though she had known them for a while now she had just been too distracted by her "Kagami dilemma" to say anything about it earlier.

Tsukasa looked at her nervously. "A-and you're sure it's okay to go?"

"Oh yeah," assured Konata. "Besides we're just looking at the building from the street."

Finally, Kagami said the first words she had said since they left the hotel early that morning. "I don't see why we have to all this trouble just 'cuz we're in Kyoto."

Konata shook her head and finger admonishingly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk! You still don't get the adventurous ways of the otaku."

That alone was enough to get Kagami back to her regular tsundere looking self, casting her little otaku friend a sharp glare. "And I don't ever wanna' get it."

Konata blushed mildly, delighted to have her friend back even if it was only temporary. "Ah, you'll learn someday, Kagami. I'll make an otaku out of you yet!"

"Don't count on it."

The grandfather clock let out a deep bellow as all three of its hands lined up on the number 12, announcing the arrival of noon for all to hear. "Ah! Well if we're going then we had better hurry!" yelped Miyuki, straddling her red purse over her shoulder as she prepared to set out.

"Right!" cried Konata excitedly, heading towards the bridge. "C'mon guys! Follow the leader!"

And with that, the three other girls hurriedly filed behind their blue-headed leader (excluding Kagami, who drug her feet so laboriously you'd think she had weights tethered to her ankles) and they marched over the bridge towards the depot.

* * *

The four of them managed to get there early enough to grab seats next to each other on the train and as they waited to depart Miyuki, Konata, and Kagami were discussing household chores whilst Tsukasa was busy trying to hastily respond to a text from her father on her cell phone before she would be forced to put it away for the duration of the train ride.

"…well that's not true," went on Miyuki sweetly, touching a hand to her cheek. "I'm good at some chores. When Minami and her family went abroad for vacation a couple of summers ago they asked me if I'd look out for Cherry-chan while they were away."

"Oh, so did you feed it, bathe it, and clean up its poop and stuff?" queried Konata with a curvy grin.

"Yes I had to do all those things. Bathing Cherry-chan was the hardest for me though."

Kagami smiled. "Yeah I kinda' figured you wouldn't care so much for the smell of wet dog, Miyuki."

"Oh it's not that I didn't like it! Actually…it's a little embarrassing but I actually got so into giving Cherry-chan her baths that I'd sometimes spend hours outside washing and combing her fur that my mom would have to come out looking for me. I liked it so much I still go over to Minami's house whenever it's time for Cherry-chan to have her bath."

"Aww that sounds like fun," said Kagami, easily being able to imagine Miyuki sitting outside by an inflatable pool next to Minami's enormous white dog, combing and stroking its fur for hours on end. "Next time you give her a bath maybe we should all come over and help out."

"Mmmhmm," seconded Konata, stroking her chin, "and then maybe we could dress her up like _R**kou _from _Pok*mon_!"

"No, no, no," said Kagami quickly. "I'm not letting you cosplay with the dog."

"Oh c'mon Kagami! Rich people dress up their dogs all the time. What's the big deal?"

"Okay two things. One: Cherry-chan isn't your dog and two—"

"Ah! Oh no…" whimpered Tsukasa as the train pulled out of the station for Shinkyogoku, observing her reflection in her camera-phone with fret.

Kagami's sisterly instincts kicked in like a light-bulb. "What's wrong, Tsukasa?"

"Ummmm…it's nothing."

"What?" Konata leaned in across Kagami's lap so she could get a better look at Tsukasa. "Is there something wrong with your face?"

"Hey, you're on my lap…" snarled the tsundere dangerously.

"Woah Tsukasa! That's a seriously big zit you're sporting there!" cried Konata suddenly, so loudly everyone in the train couldn't help but staring.

"H-hey! Keep it down!" snapped Kagami. "And **get off of my lap!**" She threw her arms up in the air, knocking Konata back into her seat in the process.

"No but look at it, Kagamin! It's like she's got Mt. Fuji growing out the side of her face! Ew. And it looks like it's about to erupt too."

"Ahhh…ummm…i-is it really that big, sis?"

"No, no, no it's not. You can barely notice it. Konata's just being…Konata."

Konata smiled, looking like the picture of confidence. "I accept your praise most humbly, Kagamiiin~"

"It wasn't a compliment!" Kagami's face softened as she turned her attention to her younger sister, examining Tsukasa's pimple by gently brushing her hair aside. "Hmmmm. See? It's not so bad. If you just keep your hair down here over your cheek you can't even notice it. Seriously though, Tsukasa, didn't you remember to bring your acne cream with you?"

She smiled dumbly, a self-conscience blush slithering its way across her face that was answer enough for Kagami. "N-no I forgot it. And I slept in so late this morning that I didn't have time to wash my face either."

"Well why didn't you just ask to borrow mine last night if you forgot it?"

"I uh…forgot to ask?"

"Ah jeez, Tsukasa, you are so helpless sometimes." Kagami reached in her bag and pulled out a small bottle of topical cream, squirting a bit on her hand. "Now hold still."

"O-okay," complied Tsukasa nervously, closing her eyes as Kagami applied the ointment to her cheek. "Ahh…thanks, sis."

"Don't mention it," said Kagami with a grin as she dried her hands off on a hanky she had also taken from her bag and when she turned to the side she saw Konata grinning at the two of them broadly. "Ugh…you have something weird to say don't you?"

"Oh it's nothing. I was just thinking…if you and Tsukasa weren't related the two of you would make a really cute couple!"

"Gah!" croaked Kagami as the other two girls' faces simply went rigid with shock. _"W-what the hell does that mean!"_

* * *

As the passengers emptied out onto Shinkyogoku station, the four girls fought hard against the rushing river of people to stay together as they made for the sidewalk. "Ah!" cried Kagami once they had broken free from the sea of humanity, spreading both her arms out wide as if to embrace the open air. "Welcome, girls, to the birthplace of all that is near and dear to me! To think that I'm probably standing next to the very bench Ishihara-sama sits at when waiting for the train!"

Kagami looked around. Other than the ten or fifteen people who got off the train with them just now the street was almost completely deserted. "There's nothing even here."

Konata nodded, stepping forward ahead of the group to once again assume her role as the "leader" for today's activities. "That's a good thing 'cuz they need to concentrate on their work. Which reminds me; when we walk past their building try to keep your voices down. I don't know if I could bear the guilt of knowing I screwed up the next episode of Haruhi because I couldn't keep you kiddies in line."

"Yeah I don't think it's us you have to be worrying about being too noisy. And don't you think you're being kinda' selfish, Konata?"

"Huh? What'cha mean?"

"Well this is all fun and good for an otaku like you but what are us normal people going to do all day while you're kissing the front steps of _Kyoto Animation_?"

"Aw don't you worry your purple little head off Kagamin. I researched what you 'normal people' like to do with your free time before we left for Kyoto and I found out they got a mall out here so we can hit that up after we're done."

"Oh…a mall?" said Miyuki nervously. "I hope it's not too big. Um…we won't split up or anything when we do the shopping, will we?"

"Don't worry Miyuki-san," Tsukasa said, not sounding too confident herself. "If we stick together then I'm sure it won't be as likely for one of us to get lost."

And so they pressed onward, first stopping at the office of _Kyoto Animation_ where Konata tip-toed the entire time and never spoke in anything above a whisper unless they were a safe distance away from the building. Although she looked annoyed by Konata's usual nerdliness, Kagami couldn't help but grin privately to herself whenever her blue-haired "leader" turned around to hush them if they were walking or talking too loud. She thought back to what the two of them discussed last night outside the _Wonder Café_—about how much Konata was like a little sister to her. Kagami had meant it when she said it but she was realizing now more than ever just how true that was. Sure, they teased each other constantly but it was always all in good fun and as of late Konata's comments were becoming less and less offensive.

"_As a matter of fact, I think the little twerp is starting to really grow on me," _thought Kagami fondly as Konata quietly rushed them all by the front door of the building for a photo, frantically searching for a passerby nice enough to take the picture for them. _"I guess this is what it's like to have a best friend. She's someone I look forward to talking to every morning. Someone who I love to tease and who I really don't mind getting teased by. Someone who's always got something funny to say even if it's well…stupid. And she always seems to be able to get my mind off stuff that's bugging me just like yesterday…"_

"Hey! Hey you!" whispered Konata to a young man passing by as the rest of them waited patiently by the door to get their picture taken.

"…_heh…even if she ends up annoying the crap out of me to do it." _

"Uh…me?" stammered the man nervously.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah you. Can you take a picture for me?"

"Hm? Oh sure. Er…can I ask why you're whispering?"

"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it. Just stand over here if you'd please…there ya' go!" She sped back to the door with the others. "Ready girls?"

"Ready!" they affirmed in hushed unison, everyone striking a pose.

The man held the camera up readily. "Say 'cheese'!"

"Cheese!"

_Ping! _went the camera with a bright flash that left Miyuki rubbing her eyes and looking disoriented as Konata ran up to the man, thanked him, and took back her camera.

"_You know…she'd actually make a really good mom one day what with all that energy she's got. I guess that's one thing she can do when she grows up. Of course that all depends on _if_ she ever grows up. I mean, with all the time she spends indoors playing games and watching anime she'll probably never meet a nice guy and even if she did go out more she'd probably only consider dating a guy if he liked all the same shows and stuff as her. Jeez, sometimes I think I should worry more about Konata than Tsukasa with how her future looks like it's gonna' turn out." _

"Hey c'mon, sis! You're going to get left behind!" called back Tsukasa's voice from the real world, pulling Kagami out of her immersive thought so she could see her friends already marching on down the sidewalk.

"Hey wait you guys! Konata! You could have at least made sure I was paying attention!"

"Shh!" she hissed. "Voices…down!"

Next stop on the day's agenda was the Teramachi-Shinkyogoku Gallery, a vast shopping wonderland with almost every kind of store imaginable. First the girl's stopped at the food-court—

("Ooh, is Kagami's stomach growling? Could it be that she could smell the food-court from all the way over here?")

("Sh-shut up!")

They each decided that since there was still some shopping left to do in the day they would order from whichever stand was cheapest so they settled with _McDon**d's _for lunch and for desert, Konata treated each of them to a Choco Cornet that she brought with her in her bag just for the occasion.

"Oh…thank you Kona-chan but I'm afraid I won't be able to stand chewing something as sugary as a Choco Cornet right now…" said Miyuki sadly, hanging her head while the other three dug into their meals.

"Huh?" said Tsukasa with a mouth full of chicken. "Don't tell me it's your tooth again."

"I-I'm afraid so…My cavity has gotten really bad and anything cold or sugary makes it hurt awfully terrible."

"Seriously Miyuki-san," said Konata as she struggled with the packaging standing between her and her Choco Cornet, "you need to take care of this before that cavity of yours gives you an abscess."

"You don't think it will get that bad do you?"

Kagami wanted to put an end to this conversation before it really began. "Hey guys…can we not talk about abscesses and tooth decay while we're eating food?"

The girls spent the rest of their lunch engaging in relatively harmless conversation that did little to put Kagami off her appetite and as she was munching away at her food, she saw out of the corner of her eye yet another couple enjoying their day at a table across the room. The girl was leaning in over the table as her boyfriend popped small cakes and strawberries into her mouth, the two of them beaming happily at each other. She was a young, pretty thing with short cropped brown hair and a face that reminded her of her eldest sister Inori.

"_Come to think of it, didn't Inori meet her boyfriend when she was my age?" _thought Kagami as she stared at the cute couple blankly. _"No, I think she was younger. They started going out in their second year of high-school didn't they? Yeah, that's right. It was Mom who said she met Dad when she was my age." _She sunk into her chair dismally and discreetly stared at her reflection which was looking back up at her from her spoon. _"Blah! What is wrong with me? Why can't I land I guy like that too? I come from the same brood as Matsuri and Inori so why don't I have a boyfriend too? Maybe…Maybe Konata was right. Maybe the reason me and Tsukasa are still single is because I scare all the guys away. No, that's stupid. We're twins! We look the same!" _She looked across the table at her sister, then back at her reflective spoon. _"Maybe_ _if I let my hair down I'd look more approachable? Nah. If anything about me is scary I don't think it's my hair."_ She looked back at her sister.

"…it's so stinky I could die!" laughed Tsukasa with Konata and Miyuki.

"_If…if anything about me is scary it's…me. I'm scary. If that's the case then maybe I should try being more like Tsukasa. Yeah! I could be cute like her too if I really tried. All I have to do is work on making my voice softer and higher pitched and—"_

"Hey Kagamiiin~!" chimed in Konata, forcing Kagami to turn her attention from her spoon to the blue haired otaku who now was holding two Choco Cornets against her head like devil horns. "Look, look! I'm _Nyuu_!"

"You're who?" Kagami blinked distractedly, looking from Konata down to her tray of food which she couldn't help but noticing was now missing one Choco Cornet. "H-hey, one of those is mine isn't it?"

"Nyuu, nyuu," whimpered Konata innocently.

"That's gross, Konata! Don't put my food in your dirty hair like that!"

"Nyuu! Nyuu!"

"Give it back!"

"_Damnit Konata! How am I ever going to be cute and calm like Tsukasa if you're always driving me friggin' crazy!"_

The rest of the day was not nearly as normal as Kagami would have hoped. In fact, most of it was spent in one of the many manga and anime shops the mall had to offer. By the end of the evening Konata was carrying so many shopping bags that she probably ended up shrinking a few more inches beneath their tremendous weight. Of course, Kagami couldn't complain. While Konata was explaining to the other two some of the finer points of the otaku lifestyle, Kagami lingered in the back of the shop and let herself get acquainted with some yaoi manga. She even felt daring enough to buy a couple of volumes of it when no one was looking and cram them deep in the abysmal depths of her bag were she was sure they would stay safe and, more importantly, secret.

"Eh? Hey sis you're looking awfully red faced. Are you alright?" said Tsukasa when Kagami had just returned from the back of the shop.

"I—I'm fine!" she insisted, all too quickly. "It's just…warmer back there I suppose."

"Ohhh…I guess that makes sense. So you ready to get going?"

"Uh…are we leaving already? Where's Konata and Miyuki?"

"Oh Miyuki had to use the restroom so Konata went with her just so she wouldn't get lost."

"Figures. I hope she doesn't try anything weird while they're in there together."

"Oh c'mon sis, I don't Konata is that kind of—"

As if on cue, Konata came strolling in with Miyuki at right that second. "Baaaaack!" said the blue haired one in a sing-song voice.

"I'm sorry for leaving the two of you alone," said Miyuki with an apologetic bow. "I'm just terribly afraid of getting lost in a mall like this again."

"Again?" snickered Kagami. "Why does that not surprise me?"

"So you two ready to head back to the station?" asked Konata to the twins as she went through her bags, double-checking to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

Kagami blushed. "Y-yeah I got everything I needed."

"Cool. Then let's move out, gang!" With a finger held up in the air, she twirled around on her heels and headed for the exit with the others toeing behind.

"You know there was one more thing I feel like I wanted to do here…What was it?" pondered Konata aloud, scratching her chin thoughtfully as they walked side-by-side towards the exit. "Ah! Now I remember!"

Kagami frowned. "I'm not going to like this. Am I?"

"That depends on how intact your inner child is, Kagamin."

"Eh-heh. Whatever. So what else is it that you wanted to do?"

Konata halted and pointed to a blue compartment over by the mall's exit with a grey curtain drawn over the side. "Photo booth!"

"No way," stated Kagami quite plainly.

"Oh please, Kagamin! It'll be good for you. It's not healthy to suffocate your inner child like that. If you keep it up you'll end up as nothing more than a lifeless, laughless, loveless husk. Pretty please!"

"No way in hell, Konata."

She summoned the best pouting face that she could and threw herself at the mercy of Miyuki and Tsukasa.

"Ummm…actually I think it sounds kind of fun," said Miyuki nervously, clearly not wanting to make Kagami irritated. "I haven't been inside a photo booth with friends since Minami and I were both really little."

Tsukasa nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Remember, sis? You used to love taking pictures with me and Matsuri when we were kids. You'd even stay up really late decorating the photos with stamps and stickers and glitter and stuff. You always made them look really cute!"

"Ts-Tsukasa!" yelped Kagami, her cheeks burning like embers. "How could you!"

"W-what? Should I not have said that?"

Konata's cat-grin was full of more smugness that usual. "Hmmm? So our tin man Kagamin had a heart after all? I wonder what happened to it?"

"Hey! I do to have a heart!"

"Really? Do you keep it on your person or locked in a chest somewhere?"

"Shut up!"

It took a few moments for Kagami to calm down but once she did she felt too tired to argue against having their pictures taken in a photo booth so she filed in like everyone else.

"After you, my lady," said Konata, pulling the curtain of the booth aside for Kagami with a low bow.

"Oh just knock it off already."

* * *

They went back to the hotel that evening right after getting their picture taken and they had a few hours after that to pack up their things and enjoy a very well cooked meal courtesy of the hotel staff. Once that was done, they left for home and just like that their vacation to Kyoto was brought to an end. Kagami couldn't help but feel a little sad once she and Tsukasa had gotten home. In spite of certain…mishaps she had actually had a lot of fun spending time with Konata and the others. She didn't know why for certain but today had been especially fun for her. She enjoyed hopping around town, visiting all of Konata's favorite spots and having lunch together and browsing manga together.

Still…it reminded her that those fun times were quickly coming to a close. Their graduation was just right around the corner and before they knew it, Tsukasa and her would have to part ways with the friends they've made through high school. She didn't know for sure if she wouldn't see any of them again but she was almost positive things wouldn't be as fun because they wouldn't be spending all day with one another. She would miss Miyuki and Ayano and Misao. She'd miss her classroom and her homeroom teacher. Heck, she'd even miss Tsukasa's homeroom teacher, Miss Kuroi, and that gangly kid in their class. "_What was his name? Sebastian? Or was it Minuru? Or…"_

But most of all, she was going to miss Konata and she wasn't afraid to admit that. They'd gotten so close over the years. Kagami felt that leaving her behind as such a big part of her daily life would be like losing a little sister. Like losing Tsukasa. Just thinking about it made a knot swell up in her throat. _"But we'll still see each other. Right? I can still go to her house every day. I doubt she'd want to go to college very far from home and her father probably wouldn't let her anyway. So maybe I can still pop into the Izumi house every so often once I'm in college to say 'hello'. And who knows? Maybe Konata will surprise me and end up going to the same university. I don't think I want to move very far away from home either and I'm pretty sure if she works hard enough Tsukasa will end up going wherever I go too."_

She started when she heard her phone begin chiming shrilly over by her desk and when she got up to get it she looked at the caller I.D. _"Konata…" _She smiled, happy to see her friend so eager to call her after she got home. _"If all else fails…even if we do end up parting ways after high school…we'll always have the phone. Right?"_

"Hey Kagamiiin!" sung Konata over the phone.

"Ugh! Hey! Don't scream into the phone like that. It hurts my ears."

"Sorry, Kagami-okaasan."

"What did I say about that?"

"Don't pretend like you don't like it, Kagami."

"Ignoring you."

"Fine, fine. No need to get so touchy. Are you already unpacked?"

"Mmmhmm. I've been home for a while now. We made it back safe and sound, pretty fast too. Tsukasa went right to sleep though."

"I thought you'd be in bed too," began Konata. "You know, sulking or something."

Kagami blinked in surprise. She had just been doing that. "W-what makes you think I got anything to sulk about?"

"Oh, no reason. So, did you put that picture we took anywhere special?"

"No," refuted Kagami quickly. "It's totally embarrassing."

Kagami could hear Konata chuckle into the phone, indicating to her that somehow she knew what she had done with the picture. Not wanting to give her an opportunity to gloat about it though, Kagami hung up her cell phone and set it on her desk where her eyes landed on the very picture Konata had mentioned. It was pinned on her calendar, the four of them all scrunched together in the picture with the words "We love Kagame" written in English above their heads, with the _e_ at the end of her name crossed out and correctly replaced with an _i, _serving as a permanent reminder that it was Konata who tried writing those words.

"Totally…embarrassing…"

* * *

_Lucky Channel!_

**Akira: **Hiya Luckies! Can you all believe it! We've made it to the third episode! As always, I'm your navigator Akira Kogami and over here are my co-hosts: the one and only Minoru Shiraishi!

**Minoru: **Good to be back, Luckies! Nice to see you all again!

**Akira: **…and over there _way, waaay _in the corner of the room is my other (and lesser) co-host, the deranged author of this fic: Yoshimizu Soup!

**Minoru: **…Akira-sama?

**Akira: **Ya'?

**Minoru:** Did we really have to tie him down and put him in a muzzle like that? He looks like Hannibal.

**Soup: **Shiraishi! You've got to get me out of this thing! I haven't eaten in days and—BAAZZAZZZAZATZATZAT!

**Minoru: **A-Akira-sama? Are you giving him shock treatment? How many volts is that?

**Akira: **That doesn't matter, silly Shiraishi. What does matter is that Soup-kun is finally keeping quiet for a change and really don't you think we're safer with him restrained?

**Soup: **But I'm not…dangerous! It was just that time of the month! I was having my period! I'm better now! Really!

**Minoru: **…You're…what?

**Akira: **Huh?

**Soup:** I know, I know. It's not proper to talk about it in public like this but it's just part of the human anatomy. Everybody does it!

**Akira:** No Soup

**Soup: **What?

**Akira: **Soup, only girls have periods.

**Soup: **Th-they do?

**Akira: **Yeah. Guys don't get periods. You are a guy, aren't you?

**Soup: **Um…yes.

**Akira: **Yeah. Then you don't get periods.

**Soup: **…Then…then why do I pee blood all the time?

**Akira: **…

**Minoru: **Um…Soup-kun. That's not really an appropriate topic of discussion for our fans to be hearing—

**Soup: **No, no, no! Hold on a second. I wanna know what's going on! Should I be worried about this?

**Akira: **Probably. You might have prostate cancer.

**Soup: **I might—wah!

**Akira:** Okay! So since it seems that Soup-kun is "incapacitated" at this time, we'll have to answer reviews on his behalf. Let's do a good job Minoru!

**Soup: **Wait! Where are you taking me! I demand answers! A-Akira! What did you do to me!

**Minoru: **…

**Akira: **Hey!

**Minoru:** Glragh!

**Akira: **Pay attention!

**Minoru: **I-I'm sorry!

**Akira: **Reviews. NOW!

**Minoru: **Right away, Akira-sama! Okay, let's see here…how do I work this thing—oh! Right! Okay, first off we would like to personally thank each and every one of you that left a review. Especially: _Gonstika, DoubleBoxEven, Hyperkinetic-Rabbity-Thing, Flygon Master, LilithRyoka, Kitmaro, ItsuMizu, StealthMomo, Arch3rher0, _and _Yojimbo89_. Thank you!

**Akira: **Clap, clap, clap! And did any of them leave a review for little ol' me?

**Minoru: **I don't know let me check. Ah! Here we go! This one's from _Kitmaro_!

**Akira: **Yaay! Read it! Read it!

**Minoru: **'Kay. _Kitmaro _writes: _"__Chapter was ok. I guess I can see the mother or sister thing but meh your fic so go for it. Now a request for Akira-sama. You said you wrote some fics before so please tell what they were about I'd really like to know."_

**Akira: **…What kind of fic I wrote?

**Minoru: **Mmmmhmm. What kind of fic you wrote.

**Akira: **Oh you know I dabbled here and there. I w-wrote about a lot of shows.

**Minoru: **Really? I never knew. What was your favorite genre to write in?

**Akira: **I uh…meh. What the hell? You ever heard of _lemon_, Shiriashi?

**Minoru: **You mean the fruit?

**Akira: **Yeah…that's what I thought. Next question. And make it about me too, okay?

**Minoru:** A-alright. Here's one. It's from _Gonstika!_

**Akira: **Ooohh yay! We like _Gonstika_ don't we, Shiriashi-san?

**Minoru:** Well we love all the fans equally but yes, we like _Gonstika._

**Akira: **Well hurry up and read the review! I'm so excited to hear what they have to say about me!

**Minoru:** 'Kay. _Gonstika _writes: _"__Aaah, another great chapter my friend, definitely lifts the mood from the previous chapter and I bet the other readers will be happy to read this as well. Kagami as the mother figure was a nice touch to add since it's a widely accepted thing in the L*S community and its good to see it once in a while in Fan Fiction __  
__Its kinda funny, these two chapters could almost be an entire story itself since chapter 2 ends happily but we want to see more (kitty smiley face)__  
__Akira and Minoru definitely are in character." –_In character? What?—_ "Yay! Oh and Akira, most people enjoy slow paced stories, I can think of a few that are acclaimed to be some, if not the best in L*S Fan Fiction, especially KonaKaga.__Another thing Akira, if you think Konata was bad enough as OOC in this story, just you wait till you read the first chapter of my sequal story, I bet you'll go ballistic." _

**Minoru: **Thanks for the great review _Gonstika_ and I'm sure Soup would thank you as well if he were here. First off, as I'm sure you can see this fic isn't going to be an endless night one. In fact, Soup told me he was planning on having it take place over the span of—(WHUD!) Gya! Akira-sama? Why'd you slam your hand down like that? You know I frighten easily!

**Akira: **So…this guy thinks he can just waltz onto my show and show me up like that?

**Minoru: **W-well actually they didn't waltz on here. They just left a review for—(WHUD!) Gyaheehiha! S-stop doing that!

**Akira: **This guy…this _"Gonstika"_…you think they have a death wish?

**Minoru: **…If I answer are you going to slam your hand aga—(WHUD!)

**Akira: **You f*%^% b%**%$! I'll teach you to undercut me on my own show like that! Why don't you come up here right now and I'll crush your temple under my heel! I bet you'll pop like a grape, you sissy!

**Minoru:** A-all they said was most people enjoy slow paced stories! That's not so bad is it?

**Akira:** Unacceptable! I will not be usurped by a fan! I will not! I swear, _Gonstika_, if I ever find out where you live I will come to your house in the middle of the night and—

**Minoru: **A-and that's all the time we have for today folks! Once again on behalf of Soup-kun I strongly encourage you to leave a review and tell us what you thought of the sh—(WHUD!) BLARGH!

**Akira: **DO NOT CUT ME OFF WHEN I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A TANGENT! DON'T-YOU-DARE—…


	4. Chapter Four: More

Chapter Four

More

"Oneeee-chaaaan!" called out Konata lyrically to the lavender haired girl standing on the landing by the windowsill with her arms crossed, the red evening sun radiating off her flawless skin like a gentle fire burning inside her. She glanced down the stairs with a hard look in her eyes—eyes that became a great deal more gentle when they saw the young blue haired girl waving energetically at her from down the stairs. "Onee-chan!" cried out Konata again merrily, loving the sound of those words as she sped up the steps to meet her.

"Hey there Konata," greeted Kagami with a sharp smile, patting her little sister on the head affectionately. "What's got you so excited?"

"Nothing," she replied, swaying her hips back and forth mischievously with her school bag tucked away behind her backside. "Have I told you lately how cute I think your pigtails are, Onee-chan?"

Her big sister grinned at her knowingly. "You're not just trying to butter me up so you can copy off my homework again, are you?"

Konata shrugged. "Is that so wrong?"

Kagami sighed, her smile withstanding. "Konata, you're my kid sister and I love you but sometimes I worry about how much you depend on me. How are you going to handle being on your own after we grow up and have lives of our own, huh?" As she was saying this she already had one hand fishing around in her schoolbag in search of today's English homework.

"What?" Konata murmured sadly. "I can't stay with you when we're adults?"

She gave her a surprised look as her hand continued to intently scour the contents of her bag. "Huh? You mean live with me and everything? C'mon, sis, I think you're going to want your own place once you get your own guy and have your own family and everything. Right?" Konata noticed her sister looked nervous, not at all like her usual calm, cool, and collect Onee-chan.

Again, Konata simply shrugged. "Why should I?" she said with her feline smile. "Why can't we just take care of each other like always? I know! You can come live in my house with me and we could raise our own kids. It'll be just like when we were little and we used to play house together! Remember? You were always the Daddy and I was always the Mommy! Why can't we do that, Onee-chan?"

Kagami blushed intensely upon hearing her proposition, causing the glow of the sun to pale in comparison. "Wah—wah—wah—wah—what?" she stammered.

Konata giggled. "You're so cute when you're nervous Onee-chan!"

"Hmm? You didn't just say that stuff to make me nervous, did you?"

She shook her head in response. "No. I meant it. I think it would be fun! ~Nyaa!"

Kagami was silent for a long time as she gave her gaze back to the window, her blue eyes shimmering brightly in intense thought. Suddenly, Konata felt a little afraid. She thought she might have offended her beloved Onee-chan. Was she asking for too much?

"I-I'm sorry, Onee-chan…" whimpered Konata like a little pup that just kicked in the stomach. "I didn't realize…you probably were talking about yourself when you said I'd want a place of my own after I…I mean after you got married. I bet you're tired of always taking care of me, huh?" She got no answer. "Yeah," Konata laughed forcibly in a pathetic attempt to beat back the pain gnawing at her chest, "I think I'd get tired of taking care of me too!"

Kagami's silence was unbearable for this young, short haired Konata. She couldn't bear seeing her Onee-chan ignore her like this. Maybe that's why she was always so dependent on her…maybe it was because having the love and undivided attention of someone so magnificent as her big sis made her feel good. Every second Kagami spent in silence felt like an age for poor little Konata—one full of agony and loneliness. She would rather her big sister turn around right now and scream at her face for being so insensitive all these years by making her wait on her hand and foot. Even though she had never had Kagami scream at her, Konata figured anything would be better than this unnatural stillness and quiet.

But Kagami neither consoled her trembling sister nor did she berate her. She just continued to stare out the window, at the bright orange sky as if Konata wasn't even there.

"Hey…um…," Konata said in a voice that shook with each syllable, smiling as she backed away, "don't worry about that homework, sis. I'll take care of it myself. It'll do me some good to finish it on my own for a change, righ—EEP!"

She felt her heel attempt to come down on a floor that wasn't there as she continued her backwards retreat, sending her petite and frail body tumbling down the stairs accompanied by a harsh series of _thuds_ and _whuds_.

"K-Konata!" screamed her Onee-chan the very instant her little sister began her ungraceful descent.

And as the world was spinning around in her eyes in all manner of directions, Konata could see her sister charging towards her. The next thing she felt was something soft and warm sliding beneath her, wrapping its arms around her as the two of them slid down the staircase together. That soft thing of course had been Kagami throwing herself beneath her sister to absorb the hard blows of the stairs, most of which had already left very visible red marks on their bodies before they finally skidded to a halt on the cold ground.

Konata's whole head was buzzing and searing with pain. Quickly, she checked to make sure she wasn't bleeding anywhere and heaved a sigh of relief when she was unable to discover anything other than a few small bumps riddling her cranium. "Uh…uhhh? Onee-chan?" she said in a voice barely above a whisper. "Are you okay?"

"Idiot…" said the lilac haired girl lying beneath her, still holding Konata close to her chest as if they were still falling. "You never gave me time to answer your question…Why did you run away like that? And without looking where you were going! You could have cracked your head open!"

Konata's vision was still blurry when she looked to her sister but that was quickly remedied when Kagami's delicate thumb gently wiped away her tears but when her vision became clear she saw an angry looking Kagami staring back at her. "What question?" asked Konata nervously.

"Don't play dumb, sis."

The green eyed girl winced, the harshness in Kagami's voice making her chest ache as if someone was trying to stack a mountain of stones on her back. It would seem being yelled at wasn't much better than the silence after all. "I really don't know what you're talking about, Onee-chan…"

Kagami's pained expression became more and more laden with grief. "Then you didn't mean what you said after all. Did you, Konata? All that about us living together…having a family…taking care of each other. You didn't mean a word of that."

Konata stiffened and answered her quickly, eager to wipe any doubts weighing down on her Onee-chan's mind. "No! I did mean it! All of it!"

"Then how could you forget what you said so easily?"

"I—I don't know! The fall must have screwed up my memory! I'm really sorry, Onee-chan! Please don't be—" Her voice trailed off into silence, becoming softer than a mouse when she felt Kagami place a hand on her cheek, caressing it as Konata's skin began to heat up beneath her palm. "O—Onee-chan?"

Kagami pulled her hand away and examined the crimson liquid she had collected in it. "You're bleeding, sis," she stated, sitting up so suddenly that Konata didn't have time to react before her head wound up resting against her sister's chest. Kagami did not make a motion to remove her from this position and likewise Konata found she dare not move her body—not even an inch. A sense of security draped over her so strongly that it was almost menacing. Menacing because of how safe she felt there in Kagami's arms. She had never felt so safe before but now the world around her felt so much more sinister than it once was, so much more ugly and violent and she feared that if she moved but a hair from this spot then that dark and vengeful realm would waste no time in crushing her into dust. And so Kagami met great resistance as she tried to pry her kid sister's face from her bosom.

"Come on, Konata," she said, in a whisper so gentle it would make wind-chimes dance. "Come on."

Her words melted away her resolve and she finally allowed Kagami's hands to pull her away. "A-are you mad, Onee-chan?" whined Konata, hugging her tsundere of a sister back like she was a lifeline.

"No. I'm not mad." Kagami laughed and tucked one of her dainty white fingers beneath Konata's chin, picking her head up so her green eyes locked with her caring blue ones. "I just gotta' make sure that scrape on your cheek doesn't get infected," she explained, gesturing with her eyes to her other hand which had a dollop of some kind of murky ointment perched on its fingertips. "Now this might sting a little but try not to fidget too much. Okay?"

Konata nodded but she wasn't really paying attention. Something about her Onee-chan seemed so…different. She had always thought Kagami was beautiful but even now when she was so far away from the window and the sun she seemed to be glowing ever so faintly. Her smile, her eyes, her cheeks, her face, her neck—every part of her from the tips of her toes to the roots of her purple hair seemed to be incandescent. All she could do was stare in awe as Kagami extended her gelled up hand forward towards her cheek, the other still just barely grazing the underside of her chin as she began applying the ointment with as much tenderness as she could muster.

At first, it felt like an icy cold wind had just fallen against the side of her face but that sensation was soon replaced by heat. Whether it was Konata's own skin that caused her body to burn so gloriously or simply just the gentleness that Kagami imparted to her sister in all her tender caressing, she could not stop herself from delighting in the warmth. It was like sitting in a sauna or sinking gently into a hot tub after spending so many days wandering alone in the cold. And before she knew what was happening, she found herself panting. Panting in thirst. Panting in want. Want of more.

More of this warmth. More of this safety. More of this love. More of her Kagami.

_More. More. More._

"Is something wrong?" asked Kagami, pulling her hand away much to the dismay of her little sister. "You're breathing really heavily. Does it sting that bad?"

"No!" Greedily, Konata lunged for her hand and brought it back up to her cheek. She didn't care how desperate she knew she must have looked to her Onee-chan in that instant. She never wanted this moment to end. "Don't let go. Don't you ever leave me."

Kagami's eyes lit up and she smiled. "I wasn't planning on it."

Silence filled the air again, only this time Konata did not mind it so much. She felt like there didn't need to be any more words between them for what needed to be said to be said.

Konata could feel her sister's fingers sliding behind her neck, becoming lost beneath her short blue hair as Kagami guided her tiny body closer towards her. She felt her lips go numb as they brushed ever so softly against the other girl's.

"Kiss me…Kagamin…"

* * *

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" went the girl with the strawberry red hair, whose face was now very much the same color as her hair.

Konata bolted upright, her long blue hair standing up wildly in all directions as her heart nearly burst out of her chest. "GYAA! YU-CHAN? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?"

"I WANTED TO SEE IF YOU WANTED TO COME DOWNSTAIRS FOR SOME BREAKFAST! I MADE BLUEBERRY PANCAKES AND I KNOW THEY'RE YOUR FAVORITE SO I THOUGHT I'D TRY WAKING YOU UP BUT THEN…BUT THEN… BUT THEN I KNOCKED ON THE DOOR AND YOU DIDN'T ANSWER SO I TRIED TO OPEN THE DOOR BUT THEN… BUT THEN… BUT THEN IT WAS LOCKED SO I HAD TO WAKE UP UNCLE FOR THE SPARE KEY AND I GOT IT AND I OPENED YOUR DOOR BUT THEN… BUT THEN… BUT THEN I ACCIDENTLY HEARD YOU TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP!"

Konata, still not entirely awake, took some time to try and figure out just why something like talking in her sleep would warrant shrieking when she suddenly remembered just what it was that she probably let slip in her slumber. And then just one, solitary thought danced through her head as she sat there in her bed: _"Please God…no…"_

Her heart racing with terror, Konata sprung to her feet. "WHAT DID YOU HEAR YU-CHAN? WHAT DID YOU HEAR?"

Yutaka shut her eyes tightly, as if she feared looking upon the deliriously panicked look in her cousin's eyes would turn her to stone. "I didn't hear anything!" she insisted.

"You just said you heard me talking in my sleep! What exactly did you hear, Yu-chan?"

Yutaka blushed deeply which was certainly not a good sign. "I don't know!" she said. "It didn't really make sense! I heard you whispering stuff like 'onee-chan' and I thought you sounded cute so I just couldn't wake you up but then…but then… but then…" She looked like she was going to hyperventilate. "I…I…I HEARD YOU SAYING SOMETHING ABOUT KISSING KAGAMI-SENPAI!"

Konata froze. She was so embarrassed she would have welcomed death at that point.

Yutaka seemed to sense her unease however and tried her hardest to meet her gaze but ultimately couldn't. "It's okay, Konata," she said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. "I swear I won't tell anyone! Not Minami-chan, not Patty-chan, not Tamura-san, not Tsukasa-senpai or Miyuki-senpai! I won't even tell Uncle!"

Konata's hand flew up to Yutaka's mouth in the blink of an eye. "Shh!" she hissed, but the two of them already knew it was too late.

Like a dog to the bell, Sojiro Izumi bolted up the stairs and appeared at the door before either of them had time to lock it shut. "Ah! There's Daddy's little girl all bright-eyed and ready to face the day! Hmmm. I couldn't help but notice just now how distracted you look right now, Konata. Kinda' like you got something you wanna' get off of your chest. How 'bout it, kiddo? You got something to tell your old man? I bet you do! C'mon downstairs and we can talk it over some of Yu-chan's delicious blueberry pancakes. I'm all ears!" He had a smile on his face that every door-to-door salesman in the world would simply kill for.

"Uh no thanks, Dad," said Konata impatiently, earning her a dejected look from her father. "Me and Yu-chan were just talking about girl stuff, not really something you would understand."

"Girl stuff?" repeated Yutaka tentatively, blushing. "S-so is it really that serious, Konata?"

"No! It's not like that at all, Yu-chan! I swear! I was just up late gaming and so I was having really weird dreams! It happens all the time when I pull late-nighters!

Yutaka cocked her head to the side curiously. "You mean…dreams like the ones in Tamura-san's doushinji?" She looked Konata up and down and her face lit up like a bonfire. "Oh…I guess that would explain why your face was so red when I came into the room. I thought you had a fever."

If it were at all possible, Konata's face got even redder while Sojiro's frown hung even lower. "What? My little girl was having impure thoughts about a man?"

Yutaka smiled uneasily. "Well I guess that's half true…"

"YUTAKA! SHHH!" yelped Konata. Fortunately, however, Sojiro did not seem to pick up on her little hint. And as her father was busy prattling on about the "indignity" of his daughter's "scandalous dreams", Konata stormed out of her room and locked herself in the bathroom to be alone.

* * *

The bathwater swished around as she went to shampooing her long blue hair: a tedious task that she always thought took way too much time out of her day but for once she was grateful for an excuse to remove herself from her family for a while.

"_Man, can't Yu-chan give me a break?"_ groaned Konata internally, sinking low into the tub and releasing a long sigh that came out in the form of several bubbles. _"It's not like I _meant_ to dream about…that. I would never purposely come up with that kind of fantasy! I can't control what I dream!" _She sunk even lower, submerging her entire head beneath the water with her feet raised high in the air. _"Still…it's kind of weird. I've never had a dream like that about anyone. Ever. So…why was Kagami the first one I dreamt about? Why didn't I dream about Kyon or Sosuke or just any guy for that matter? Why was it a girl?"_

She found her mind slipping back into the dream she had, back when Kagami Onee-chan had been holding her after their tumble down the stairs. Her hand went up to her cheek where she had been scraped in the dream. Where Kagami had put her hand.

"_Jeez! How come whenever you have a dream you can never figure out it's a dream just by looking at how stupid everything is? I know I'm not Kagami's sister. I'm not Tsukasa! I should have figured out that was a dream right there and stopped it!"_

She remembered how Kagami had caressed her cheek and without thinking about it she began mimicking the action, stroking the side of her face tenderly.

"_And why was I her little sister? I mean it's weird enough I had a dream about a girl but not only that I'm dreaming about getting girls who are supposed to be my sisters! If I don't watch it I'm going to turn into Dad!"_

She remembered how hot her body had felt in the dream and Konata dismissed the sudden warmth she felt as simply the bathwater spontaneously heating up.

"_And what's with Dad, anyway? It's none of his business what's going on up in my room! Why does he have to keep poking his nose in whenever he imagines I have something I want to tell him? I know he's Dad and that's what he does but still it's starting to piss me off." _

She remembered Kagami's hand reaching around behind her neck as she pulled her in for what would have been a kiss had Yutaka not woke her up and without realizing it Konata let her mouth part open slightly …almost expectantly. In the back of her mind she recalled the warmth of Kagami's dream-breath, the excitement of her nerves, and the closeness of their mouths.

She yelped, and shot up out of the water when she felt an unexpected electrical shock sting her lower lip. Her eyes shot open.

"_W-what was that?" _she thought in alarm, two hands pressed over her mouth as her flat chest began rising and falling in rapid succession. She puckered her lips and looked down at them as best she could, tracing a finger around their curves and before long the pressure her little finger put down against her lips once again got her thinking of the dream… and of Kagami's kiss.

"_Didn't Miyuki once say something about dream's having something to do with subconscious stuff?" _She recalled, still toying with her lips absently as her eyes fixed themselves on the leaky bath faucet. _"I don't think I've ever thought about Kagami in that way before. At least not seriously. I mean yeah I've thought she was pretty before but I never felt…like…attracted to her! Grrr! What the hell is wrong with my brain? Kagami's my friend! My friend! Why would I ever dream about her like this?"_ Suddenly, she remembered. Yesterday on the train to Shinkyogoku when Tsukasa had been complaining about her pimple, Kagami had done her the courtesy of applying some acne cream for her. Just like in her dream where Kagami had done something similar. Is that why she had had that bizarre fantasy?

Back on the train, Konata had felt something when she saw Kagami and Tsukasa together and she had assumed it was just the otaku part of her brain that wanted to see her two best friends peck each other playfully on the lips. She had seen girls do it before in anime and manga in a friendly sort of way and their faces were only a few inches apart anyway so why not? But with last night's dream still fresh in her mind, she could tell it was more of a whimsical desire she had felt.

While it was true she had felt desire that day on the train but only now was she able to understand _what _it was she desired. It was the same desire she had felt last night in her dream. The one that desperately wanted… "more" Kagamin. Looking back on the scene, she realized she may have actually been a bit _jealous _of Tsukasa.

Her hand had gone back to stroking the side of her face mindlessly. "I can't believe it…" she mumbled aloud. "I…I like Kagami…"

Konata had hoped that saying those words would make her feel better but they didn't. They made her feel worse. She knew even then that if she chose to pursue this, if she chose to go down the Kagami route, things were going to get really complicated really fast. She had never been in a real relationship before so she would have no idea how to act towards the Hiiragi family if they started dating. They were so old-fashioned, she didn't like to think of what they would do once they found out Kagami was dating a girl!

She also thought back to how dramatically Yutaka had reacted this morning to what she heard Konata say in her sleep. She had been acted pretty shocked but she didn't necessarily seem upset or weirded out by her. But what about her father? What would he think?

And speak of the devil…

"Konata!" cried her father's voice as he knocked loudly on the door. "Hey I'm real sorry, kiddo! I didn't mean to upset you! I can't help but get nosy sometimes but you're my little girl and it's my duty as your father to keep an eye on you! So just come out and have breakfast with me and Yu-chan already! Daddy can't eat properly when he knows his baby is sulking!"

"I'm sorry too Konata!" piped up the sweet voice of her little cousin. "I think I might have jumped to conclusions a little while ago! I'm sorry if I made you mad! But I promise I won't care even if um…if what I heard really was what I thought it was! Okay?"

Konata sighed, getting up out of the tub and wrapping a long yellow towel around her chest as she opened the door to come face to face with the two of them. "Jeez guys, chill out," she said as she began knocking the water out of her ears. "I was never mad I just needed to take a bath."

"Y-you weren't mad?" stammered Sojiro, looking like a scared little kid who just narrowly escaped a scolding from his mother. "Really?"

"Really."

"Really?" echoed Yutaka.

"Mmmhmm. Really, really."

"Oh…" Sojiro sighed in relief. "In that case…would you please tell me what the heck Yu-chan keeps going on about? I wanna' know so bad! It's driving me crazy!"

Konata smiled. She knew deep down her father wouldn't be angry with her to learn about the feelings she had for Kagami…but then again it might make him just a little bit _too _happy. This route was going to be a long and difficult one and she didn't want _him_ trying to play matchmaker. She had seen him play dating sims. If her father got involved in any way it could only lead to disaster.

"So…are you okay, Konata-chan?" said Yutaka slowly, giving her cousin a nervous smile.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine now. Worked it all out!"

Yutaka's smile became more genuine as Konata gave her a reassuring thumbs-up. "That's good."

Konata smiled back, now feeling refreshed and full of her usual energy and spunk. She felt like she could have any guy or girl in the world right now that she wanted. Maybe this Kagami route wasn't going to be so hard after all. And if she ever needed help with getting there, at least she had Yu-chan to rely on for that.

Sojiro's curiosity had peaked a thousand times over at this point. Tears of frustration cascaded from his eyes and he appeared to be on the verge of ripping out his hair. "WHAT…ARE…YOU…TWO…TALKING…ABOUT?"

Konata smiled. "Like I said earlier: it's just girl stuff, Dad."

"That was a lie and you know it! Don't you try lying to your daddy, Konata!"

"Gah! Dad! Let go of me! You're going to knock my towel off!"

* * *

_Lucky Channel! _

**Akira: **Hiya' Luckies! Are you guys ready for fourth episode of Lucky Channel? And not only is it the fourth episode today but it's also a very special one! It's the _**LUCKY CHANNEL VALENTINE'S DAY SPECTACULAR**_! Da-da-da-daaa! I'm your lovely and charming host: Akira Kogami! And to your left you'll see my co-hosts: Minoru Shiraishi and Yoshimizu Soup and even though it's not Valentine's Day yet we here at Lucky Channel still want to wish you a very Happy Valentine's Day!

**Minoru and Soup: **Heeeeey everybody! Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

**Akira:** Yaaay! Everyone's back on the show today! I was worried that Soup-kun was still going to be on lockdown but the producer pulled a few strings and got him let go early! Three cheers for Mr. Producer! Hip-hip!

**Minoru: **Hurray!

**Akira: **Hip-hip!

**Minoru: **Hurray!

**Akira: **Hip-hip!

**Minoru: **Hurray!

**Soup: **Wow Akira-sama. I never thought you'd be so happy to see me! …Especially since you're kind of the one who indirectly landed me in group therapy _and_ in the hospital all in the span of two weeks.

**Akira: **Of course I'm happy to see you, Soup-kun! It is Valentine's Day, after all!

**Soup: **Oh Akira-sama! You're so funny! That wasn't a confession was it?

**Akira:** You wish it was, you wretched little boy!

**Soup: **…Serenity now…serenity now…

**Akira: **Sooo anyway! Soup-kun! Isn't there something you're legally bound to tell our viewers?  
**Soup: **Oh…right. Um…so yeah it turns out I didn't actually have PMS last week when I freaked out on the segment. Apparently Akira-sama was right…guys don't get PMS. As it turns out someone had slipped something into my drink a few weeks ago and it was making me pee out my own blood. So I guess that means I am actually a little crazy. B-but I'm getting help! I meet with my therapist on Mondays and Thursdays and I have group therapy sessions every other weekday! So don't worry, Luckies! I'm going to be okay!

**Akira: **Don't flatter yourself. They could have cared less about what happened to _you_.

**Soup: **…

**Minoru: **You okay, Soup? You're looking a little pale again.

**Akira: **Uh oh! Did we break Soup-kun's brain again?

**Soup: **…

**Akira: **Well you can't blame us! Soup-kun's brain has the stability of a glass egg!

**Minoru: **A-Akira-sama! That's an awful thing to say!

**Soup: **….Serenity now…

**Akira:** Well grumpy ol' Soup-kun aside, I think this chapter had the perfect mood for our Valentine's Day Segment today!

**Minoru: **I know! Although I have to admit I was a little lost at the beginning there it's still nice to see Konata and Kagami's relationship finally taking root in the show!

**Akira: **Mmmmhmmm! As weak as all the romance was in this chapter I still think it really compliments the theme of today's segment! But don't worry, Soup-kun, go read a few of my fics and I'm sure you'll get better at it!

**Minoru: **…

**Soup: **…Serenity…Now…

**Akira:** Well since it is Valentine's Day, Minoru, why don't we open some fan mail! Maybe one of the fans has a confession for lil' ol' me.

**Minoru: **Well I'm not sure about that. We didn't exactly tell the fans about our theme for the day and it's not even Valentine's Day yet so…

**Akira:** Yes but this is the moment they've been looking forward to all their lives! The chance to finally confess to their idol and goddess! Me! Akira Kogami!

**Soup: **…(snicker)…

**Akira: **What are you laughing at over there, you fatherless little orphan, you?

**Soup: **…Serenity—

**Minoru: **Oh would you look at that! I found a fan letter! Let's open it and see what it says!

**Akira: **Hurray! We got a letter!

**Minoru: **This one's from _Yojimbo89_! He (or she) writes: _"__Hey Soup good__job on the new chapter I like it plus points for the Elfen Lied joke Nyuu! luck to you and I hope to read more soon__."_

**Soup: **Ah! Thank you very much, _Yojimbo89_!

**Akira: **Go on, Minoru! Keep reading!

**Minoru: **Alrighty. _"__BTW Akira you is a crazy bitch you on meds or something (don't hate her buuut still love to mess with her. Odds are I'll end up making a comment 'bout her with each review)"_

**Akira: **…What was that you just said to me, Shiraishi?

**Minoru: **His words—not mine! His words—not mine! GAH! Don't touch me there!

**Akira: **I'll rip it off next time if you don't _pick better reviews_!

**Minoru: **No! Don't! I need that to smell with!

**Soup:** Kero, kero, kero, kero…

**Akira:** Something funny 'bout this, Soup?

**Soup:** It's nothing…that's just…(Kero)…one helluva confession, Akira-sama. (TWANG!) Aiyeee!

**Akira: **Watch your mouth you cheeky little bastard! I'll flog you to hell and back again! Oh! And we would also like to extend a super duper special thanks to _LilithRyoka _for the whip! Thank you!

**Minoru: **Yeah…thanks.

**Soup:** …Yeah you're the f***ing best, Lilith… (TWANG! SLASH! TWANG!) OW! OWWW! OWWWWWW!

**Akira: **We would also like to thank _DoubleBoxEven, Gonstika, LilithRyoka, Hyperkinetic-Rabbity-Thing, Flygon Master, Kitmaro, Arch3rher0, _and once again _Yojimbo89 _for taking the time to review! You guys made me mammoth happy! Shiraishi-san, you think we have time for one last review?

**Minoru: **(Sobbing) Sure let me grab one. This one's from _Kitmaro_. They write: _"Good chapter today it had a nice flow to it. Really enjoy your work Soup kun. And I love the Lucky Channel segments. The experience is enhanced by the presence of Akira sama and Minoru."_

**Akira: **Wow! Thank you so much! Hear that, Soup-kun? The first chapter _Kitmaro_ really enjoyed was the one that you weren't really in!

**Soup: **…Serenity…

**Akira: ** Guess that says a lot about your "popularity" with the fans, right? If you can even call it that.

**Soup: **…Now…

**Minoru: **Well it looks like that's all the time we have for today! Before we go, Akira-sama told me to remind you guys that if you want to leave a confession for her don't hesitate to do so!

**Akira: **I need to know how much you love me! Oh…and if you want to confess to Minoru that's fine too.

**Soup: **Oh! That reminds me! Grrrrunnt! (Thud)

**Minoru: **Woah! That's a big gift-basket, Soup-kun! Whose it all for? You got a special someone, do you?

**Soup: **Well…yes actually.

**Minoru: **That's cool! Is it for one of our fans? Or maybe _all_ of our fans!

**Soup: **Well no I can't actually give them chocolates although that would be super stellar. These are actually for someone…really close to me. Physically speaking. As in within this vicinity.

**Akira:** Ohhhhh! It's for me isn't it? Soup-kun you shouldn't have!

**Soup: **Nope. Guess again! (You horrid bitch).

**Akira: **…Huh? They're not for me?

**Soup: **Nope. They're actually for…for…for Minoru Shirashi-sama…

**Minoru: **…

**Akira: **…

**Minoru: **I…I don't know what to say…

**Akira: **…H…HUH!


	5. Chapter Five: Search and Rescue!

Chapter Five:

Search and Rescue!

Kagami had once heard Patty-chan tell her that thunder was supposed to be the angels bowling in the heavens above. Today, however, it sounded more like the angels were busy playing horseshoes with nukes. Never before in all her life had she heard the sky roar so ferociously or the wind hiss so shrilly; and when the lightning struck it was as if someone had just chucked a strobe light at her head. The heavy black clouds collecting up on high were dark as sin, plunging all of her world into a shadow not even the sun could permeate.

"Well at least it's not raining yet," observed Tsukasa with a nervous smile, dressed in her red and white winter uniform as Kagami studied the storm from the safety of the kitchen window. "That's something. Right?"

"Yeah I guess," added Matsuri, sitting at the kitchen table in her lime green pajamas. "Still I can't believe they're making you guys walk to school in this weather. The two of you might have to get all geared up in rubber jumpsuits just to make sure you don't get fried by a lightning bolt!"

Tsukasa yelped while Kagami sighed and drew the curtain over the window, shooting her older sister a deadly glare. "Matsuri, you're going to freak her out," she warned as she made her way to the table to join them for breakfast.

"Awww naw. She's fine. She knows when I'm just messing with her. Right, Tsukasa?"

Before she had time to answer, Kagami interjected. "No. She doesn't. And could you stop behaving like a child please? It's too early in the morning for this."

Matsuri cocked an eyebrow in her direction. "Wow, Kagami, you're even more bitter today than usual. Up too late studying?"

Her face hardened as she sipped from her glass of milk, her hold on the cup dangerously firm. _"At least it's better than what certain people do with their evenings," _she fumed internally. _"Ticks me off that I get teased for studying by my own family while staying up till' the wee hours of the night playing games is just another sign of healthy adolescence at the Izumi home-front."_

"Yeah? What about it?" sneered Kagami flatly. "Jealous that your little sister is already out-schooling you in book smarts?"

Matsuri grinned victoriously. "See? You're foulness only furthers my point."

"I am not being foul!" spat Kagami furiously.

"Fine, fine. Whatever you say," replied her sister, scooting out from the table and reaching both her arms up high for a stretch and a yawn. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I'm going to go get some more shut-eye before I end up looking like that miss grouchy face here."

Kagami snarled into her glass. "Good riddance."

Matsuri said goodbye to Tsukasa and told her to be careful on her way to school (completely ignoring Kagami) before sluggishly dragging her feet back upstairs.

"Are you sure everything's okay, sis?" Tsukasa asked with the softest smile she could muster. "I mean you are acting kind of…grouchy this morning."

Her frown did not fade as she began nibbling on her toast. "Oh I am, am I?" she said slowly, clearly feeling a little embarrassed by her behavior. "Fine. I'm sorry. I was up pretty late last night doing all that biology homework Miss Sakuraba dumped on us before the trip. I was up _all night_. Don't you just hate it when teachers do that—giving you a big load of work to do right before a vacation or a class trip? It's impossible to enjoy yourself till' you get it done and if it's a class trip you're going on sometimes you don't have any time to get it done until the last minute. You know what I mean?"

"Ummm…yeah I guess I do." Tsukasa sounded a little distracted, looking at her sister intently. "But are you sure that's it? I mean, I've seen you go whole nights without sleep and normally you don't act that much different the next day so…are you sure you're okay?"

Kagami smiled at her reassuringly. "Nah, I'm fine, Tsukasa, really."

Her sister did not look entirely convinced but she nodded in acknowledgement all the same. The truth was, however, Kagami was not fine. She was "bitter" because she was nervous. She had been watching the storm every opportunity she had up until just a few moments ago when she sat down to eat. She had never seen the world outside look so dark before and what was even more unsettling than the unnatural shadow that had crept over them in their sleep was the calmness. Thunder, lightning, and wind all were roaring, flashing, and howling outside but not a single drop of rain had fallen. It was like the clouds were holding out, gathering every molecule of water that could be found into its mass before they finally let the rain come crashing down to drown them all. And what's more they had to go to school with such a storm brewing over them.

"Oh? Are you two still here?" said their mother as she walked into the room, a flowery bathrobe being drawn over her chest with one hand as she ran a comb through her long dark hair with the other. "Kagami, you and your sister need to get into your raincoats and start heading for the station or you're going to miss school."

Tsukasa whimpered in objection. "Wah? We have to go to school in our raincoats? Mom, we're going to look like little kids!"

"Yes but you'll be two very _dry_ little kids, won't you?"

"It's not even raining, though…"

"Hmmm…yeah maybe not yet but just take a look outside Tsukasa," said Kagami with a grin. "It's going to start coming down any minute now. You wouldn't want your cell-phone to get wet and short out, would you?"

* * *

That was enough to get Tsukasa to agree and moments later the two of them left the house in their dark purple raincoats: fully equipped with matching boots and hat. Tsukasa was very pleased when the ghostly wailing of the wind came to an end but Kagami thought it had stopped too abruptly for her comfort. It was that "calm before the storm" thing she had felt so many times before in such weather. To her, the scariest part of a big storm like this was when the wind stopped—it was like a lion drawing one great big breath before a tremendous roar. Regardless, they were able to continue their trek to the train depot while only suffering the occasional blast of thunder and lightning. And the wind remained motionless as Kagami rushed her sister into the train.

"Oh thank god for electricity!" gasped Kagami as they quickly took their seats, rejoicing beneath the glow of the light-bulbs that ran the length of the ceiling.

"Wow, sis, I never knew you were so scared of thunderstorms," said Tsukasa pleasantly. "You looked like you couldn't wait to get on the train."

"I'm not scared of thunderstorms," she protested crossly. "I'd just rather not be caught in one is all."

The thunder bellowed and then Kagami found herself in a very unfamiliar position. She was leaning up against something rather warm and soft, and when she looked to her right she realized she had just hidden herself in Tsukasa's shoulder. Her heart was beating in her chest to the rhythm of a galloping horse and her entire body had gone cold as ice for one terrifying instant. She shifted her gaze from Tsukasa's arm to her face which looked just as surprised as Kagami's. "A-are you okay, sis?" she stammered, regarding her sister with concern. "You screamed so suddenly I thought you got struck by lightning or something."

Kagami's eyes widened. _"I…I screamed?" _

"Kagami?" said Tsukasa again when she did not answer.

"Hm? Oh…I—I'm good."

"But you…" Tsukasa's voice trailed off when she saw the panicked look in Kagami's deep, sea-blue eyes. She knew that look. Kagami often wore it when she was obsessing over her weight (or her goldfish's), nothing she said for a while was going to get through to her so she decided to just save her breath and let the matter slide. _"I guess even she gets startled sometimes,"_ thought Tsukasa. _"I know it should make me feel good that she hid behind me like that…it was like I was her Nee-chan for a change. B-but I really didn't like that. I don't think I've ever seen Kagami get scared like that before." _

Kagami was thinking pretty much the same thing as the train continued to roll down the tracks. Whenever the thunder boomed, or the wind howled, or whenever the monster jumped out at the television screen Tsukasa had always been the one to get jittery and go to _her_ for shelter. That was the way their relationship worked and Kagami liked it that way. She liked being the strong one; she liked being there for Tsukasa and whoever else when they got scared or upset. Sure, Kagami had gotten scared before herself but she had never let it show, especially not in public and especially not in front of Tsukasa.

The train came to a screeching halt that ripped Kagami away from her thoughts, plopping her back down into reality where she was now gripping Tsukasa's wrist with wide eyes. Her toes tensed up in her shoes as her nerves went into overdrive.

"Ah! Sis! My arm!" yelped Tsukasa who was trying to wrench her hand away.

"Sorry!" Kagami relinquished her grip, her nerves stirring even more unpleasantly when she saw the marks her nails had left in her sister's skin. "I…I…" She wanted to say, _"I got scared," _but for some reason her tongue wouldn't let her, like it would sooner retreat into the back of her throat and gag her before forming those words.

Tsukasa nodded and smiled, rubbing her wrist tenderly. "It's okay," she said warmly. "You just startled me."

The train doors opened and the people around them poured out into the darkness and before she knew it Kagami was the only left. Even Tsukasa had a foot out the door before she realized she was alone. She turned around. "Sis," she said softly.

Kagami blinked. "Coming," she said as she got up and joined Tsukasa, her rubber boots squeaking beneath her. "Sorry again for hurting your arm."

"Oh…don't mention it. It's okay though, really. You didn't hurt me."

Kagami smiled. She knew her sister might have been lying to her but she just didn't have the willpower to maintain her pride right then so she let herself believe her words at least for now. The doors closed behind them with a sharp _hiss_ and the train slowly began to speed away from them, taking its light with it as it vanished into the blackness of the storm.

Kagami took Tsukasa's hand in hers; squeezing it tightly under the pretense that she was doing it for her sister's sake—that Tsukasa was the one who needed comfort.

"Looks like the rain's started," whimpered Tsukasa sadly.

Kagami nodded, the rain hammering against the ground like trillions of tiny needles falling from the sky. "Good thing you put on your raincoat, huh?"

Tsukasa smiled. "I guess. I still think we look kinda'—"

"ADORABLE!" chimed the ever energized voice of none other than Konata Izumi, who had appeared almost out of nowhere from the shadows in a dark green waist-long raincoat. "The two of you look adorable! Purple really does seem to be your color, Tsukasa."

"Ah! Kona-chan! You really think so?"

"Mmmhmm, I know so."

"Hey Konata," greeted Kagami with a fondness she did her best to disguise. "Have you been waiting at the station this whole time just for us?"

"Actually we were going to leave a few minutes ago but Yu-chan got a little sick so I let her rest for a while. That reminds me, watch your step when you go down the stairs…I don't think the rain's completely washed away all her puke." She looked Kagami up and down. "Hey! Kagami-sama looks unusually cute as well."

Kagami let go of her sister's hand quickly, knowing full well that if it stayed in her grasp any longer then it would probably end up being crushed in Kagami's growing irritation. "What do you mean, 'unusually cute'?"

Konata let a hand fly up to her face to keep herself from snickering. "And it looks she's unusually slow today too."

"You have no room to talk!"

"But her scariness is still about the same!"

Tsukasa stood there smiling as Konata and her sister did their usual routine, Kagami yelling at her while Konata stood resolute with a perfectly feline grin plastered on her face. Tsukasa thought the two of them were so funny. Funny not only because their antics just made her laugh but also because of how…odd the "conditions" of their little game were.

She sighed. The two of them were just…odd.

"Konata, I think I'm feeling better now! Who are you talking to?" came the soft and timid voice of Konata's _little_ cousin Yutaka, her cherry red hair topped off with a bright pink rubber hat that matched the rest of her attire. Tsukasa couldn't help but notice how unusually tense Yu-chan got when she saw Kagami standing there. "Oh!" she yelped. "Hi Tsukasa-senpai! Hello K-K-K-Kagami-senpai!"

"Hi, Yu-chan!" greeted Tsukasa excitedly, feeling safer amidst the chaos of the storm with all the friendly faces that had shown up. "That raincoat looks really cute on you! I'm jealous. I don't really think I look all that good in stuff like this anymore."

Yutaka blushed. "Th-thanks. Uncle picked it out for me just this morning…"

Kagami and Tsukasa felt an unearthly chill pass through their bodies at the thought of Konata's dad playing dress up with his impressionable niece. _"Creepy…" _

"Yup! Me and Yu-chan can still rock the raincoat look!" proclaimed Konata with excitement, making a little pose that caught the attention of many a passerby. "What do you think, Kagamin? I can still work it right? I can!"

Kagami made an evil grin. "Oh yeah. You look adorable. Although I don't think you ever had to worry about _outgrowing_ that look."

She looked up at her twin-tailed friend crossly. "Ouch. That was a low blow, Kagami."

Kagami shrugged. "No more than you deserved."

The blue haired one whimpered sadly. "Do you take pleasure in my suffering?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she chided in response.

Yu-chan looked from her cousin and then to Kagami and suddenly a bright red blush ripped across her face that was so powerful it nearly lit up the entire platform. "P-pleasure? S-suffering?" she stammered uneasily, the sound of whips cracking and voices squealing rushing through her head and making her body tremble.

Tsukasa shot Yutaka a worried look. "Something wrong, Yu-chan? You feel a fever coming on?"

"NO!" she cried, her voice unusually high-pitched even for her. "No, nothing is wrong!"

The three of them stared at her for a moment as Yutaka simply stood there shaking in her pink rubber boots, her blush spreading like wildfire. "What's up with her?" queried Kagami.

"Oh nothing," said Konata knowingly. "It's funny…even though she's only my cousin and she's from my mom's side of the family it's almost like she has the blood of an Izumi flowing inside her. Yu-chan! I'm so proud of you!"

Kagami's face fell slowly. _"Okay for some reason I suddenly feel really uncomfortable about all this…"_

After Yutaka came out of her blushing fit, the four of them set out into the storm together and even though the wind was bawling and the rain was falling they found it was easier to make their way through the darkness now that they were all together. "Gah! The rain is getting in my eyes!" griped Yutaka as they pressed onward against the gale. She asked for the group to hold up for a minute as she sat down her backpack and began rummaging through it for her umbrella. "Ah! Thanks for waiting, guys! I found it!" she declared happily as she extracted a dark red folded up umbrella from the depths of her bag.

Suddenly, the wind began to roar almost as loudly as the thunder, nearly knocking them all off their feet. Kagami actually staggered back several inches before she could muster up the strength to stand upright against the wind and make sure the others were okay. "This is getting ridiculous!" she cried out, her toes curling up again nervously. "We need to hurry up and get inside, you guys!"

"Right!" agreed Yutaka and Tsukasa in unison.

"Awww c'mon! What's the rush?" groused Konata, both her arms stretched out at her sides as her dark green raincoat snapped in the wind. "Live a little! If you close your eyes and hold out your hands like this it almost feels like your flying!"

The lightning flashed and the thunder that followed hit Kagami like a punch to the gut, sending her tripping backwards and almost falling had it not been for some fancy footwork on her part. "Konata that's retarded!" she snapped, both her patience and her voice beginning to crack. "If we don't hurry poor Yutaka is going to catch her death if not all four of us!"

Konata frowned at her as she lowered her arms. "Wet blanket…" she grumbled as she waltzed over to her cousin who was currently struggling with opening her umbrella. "Gasp! No Yu-chan! Don't!" She said as she quickly snatched away the device.

"H-hey! What'd you do that for?"

Konata grinned at her, as if the answer should be perfectly obvious. "Well Yu-chan, think the situation through for just a second. I don't mean to be mean or anything but you're a tiny gal! Ya' know? If you open up that umbrella, the wind will sweep you off your teeny-tiny feet to god knows where and we might never see you again."

"Huh? You're small too, Konata!" protested Yutaka angrily.

"Yu-chan, please," she said dismissively. "You're what? Seventeen kilos? At the most."

"…seventeen and a half…" added Yutaka dismally.

"Right. And I myself am sitting pretty on a healthy _twenty-two_ kilograms." She placed her small thumb on the round button at the hilt of the umbrella before Kagami or Tsukasa could see what was going on (the rain was falling so heavily at this point they had to strain to make out anything past their own noses). "So don't you worry about your big cuz', 'kay? She knows what she's do—EEEEEEEEEEAAAAN!"

It all happened so fast that none of the others had time to react. There had been a curt _flop! _as Konata clicked open the umbrella followed by a long drawn out scream as the wind swooped down and spirited the blue haired otaku away.

"K-KONATA!" shrieked Yutaka, instantly seizing the undivided attention of the other two girls who sprang forward with looks of worry and confusion.

"Yu-chan? What's wrong? Where's Konata?"

All she could do was point forward in the direction the wind was heading. "What?" Kagami cried out over the storm. "What are you pointing at?"

"Konata! Konata flew over there!" she screamed, her face rigid with shock.

"She flew?" echoed Kagami.

"Ah! Oh no! Sis! You don't think…"

"…the umbrella!" the three of them finished in unison.

They bolted; the wind at their backs as they took off after Konata who they could not hope to see or hear over the rain. "Konata!" cried out the girls at some point or another. "Konata!" But of course, no reply reached their ears. They did not even know if one had been made. Who was to say it had or hadn't amidst this tempest?

"Yu-chan!" squealed Tsukasa suddenly.

Kagami turned around to face her two companions. They had not been running more than a minute and already Yutaka was on her knees, looking quite pale. "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know!" Tsukasa got down on her knees, placing a hand on the young girl's face for a temperature before looking to her sister helplessly. "I think she might actually be getting a fever!"

Kagami nodded. "Then we have to get her out of this weather! Let's take her up to the school and have Minami take a look at her!"

"What about Konata?" she yelled back.

The lilac haired girl froze. "I…I think we'll have to come back for her later, Tsukasa…"

"What? No! Sis, we can't leave her out here!"

"Tsukasa, don't worry. Konata's tougher than she looks! Yutaka needs our help more than her right now, anyway! There's no telling how long she'll last out here like this!"

"No! We can't leave without Konata!"

The wind howled and the thunder roared in laughter as Kagami the Tsundere began losing what was left of her patience. "We don't even know where she is, Tsukasa!"

"That's exactly why we have to find her!"

Kagami's face softened ever so slightly as the severity of the situation really began to sink in.

"Listen!" went on Tsukasa, helping Yutaka off the ground. "You've always been better at this sort of thing than me, sis! You have to find her! I'll bring Yutaka back to the school and get help!"

Kagami stood motionless, sheer dread gripping tight and keeping her body frozen in place. She couldn't be left out here alone in this storm to look for Konata! She wouldn't! She wouldn't take anymore of this thunder or this lightning or this wind or this rain or this wetness! She couldn't take anymore of how her heart kept skipping beats at every little thunder clap and flash of light! She wanted to get out of this hell—out of this nightmare—and _nothing_ was going to prevent her escape.

"Fine…" stammered Tsukasa after their long. "If you don't go looking for her…then I will."

"No!" Kagami objected quickly. "I'll go! I'll try to find her!"

"_WHAT AM I SAYING?"_

Tsukasa smiled at her at long last. It was a sad smile, true, but it relaxed much of Kagami's very stiff joints. "Thank you, sis," she said.

"J-just be sure you get the teachers and everybody out here to help look! I don't want to be out here too long!"

"_I don't want to be alone out here at all!" _

"I will! As soon as I can!" Tsukasa turned to leave, stumbling over herself as she struggled to guide a weary Yutaka against the might of the wind. "Be safe, sis!"

"_What? No! Where are you going?"_

"I will!" cried back Kagami.

And with that, Tsukasa and Yutaka were both gone. They had left as quickly as the lights on the train, as suddenly as Konata, and as unexpectedly as her comfort. And now all those things had left Kagami feeling very much alone…

_Alone…and Afraid…_

_

* * *

_

She continued down the street along with the wind which was as sharp and as shrill as ever in her ears which were raw and numb from their passing. She did not think her poor heart could stand much more of this weather. Every time the lightning blinked she thought she was going to die and every time the thunder clapped she felt like she _knew_ she was going to die. And with each trembling step forward she took, these words echoed endlessly in her end on a loop:

"_I cannot do this. I cannot do this. I cannot do this." _

She was really starting to believe it too. Every motion she made became more labored than the last. Every time she blinked she thought she was going to collapse and fall asleep right there on the ground. "I can't do this…" she panted. "I really can't do this." She did her best to see beyond the haze but nothing she did made her visibility any more defined. On top of being barraged by the booming thunder and the blinding lightning she was also blind!

"I'm sorry…Konata," she said aloud, with no one there to hear her. "I can't…can't go on. I need to go back." She knew all along she was no match for this storm. If the rain didn't completely wash away her flesh then surely her heart would burst or she'd be hit by an oncoming driver lost as she was in this gale force. _"It'll be fine," _she assured herself as she turned around on her heels. _"Everything will be fine. I'm sure by now Tsukasa's got the whole school up and searching for her and they've probably even contacted the police. They can find her. There's no point in me risking life and limb out here when there are much more capable people conducting the search! Plus I could get lost if I go much further on my own. That's right. I need to head back _right now._ And if the teachers can't find her and the police can't find her then I'm sure at least her dad will be able to—" _

The face of Sojiro Izumi flashed in her head along with the lightning and she froze in place. Wasn't it Mr. Izumi who had said Kagami actually reminded him of his wife—Konata's mom—in some ways? She couldn't help but wonder all the sudden: exactly in what ways were they similar? Would Kanata Izumi put up with her daughter's antics the way she did? Would she really hover over Konata like Kagami did to make sure she got her homework done instead of spoiling her like her dad? Would she be as good of a friend in addition to being a protector? Would she play with her, laugh with her, yell at her, tease her, care for her, and listen to her like Kagami did? "_Of course she would have!"_ said a voice in her head. "_She was Konata's mother after all._"

Konata had said it to her so clearly back then outside the café: _"You're like the mother I never had," _like it was a simple matter of fact.

Would Kanata run into this storm alone? Would she have risen against all fear and sense, searching and searching until she found her little girl and made sure she was safe and sound? Would she have done all the things that Kagami wasn't strong enough to do? Of course she would have. She was Konata's mother after all. And so it was with that in mind Kagami spun back towards her original path, her breath shaking in terror at what she was about to undergo.

Every nerve in her body screamed at her, demanding that she turn around and head for shelter but even as her brain and her senses roared in objection her feet kept moving forward with renewed drive. "KONATA!" she called out as loud as she could, challenging the thunder to drown her out as she sped down the sidewalk. "KONATA WHERE ARE YOU?" She let the wind quicken her pace and the entire time she was running she was calling out Konata's name. She didn't know how far she had gone but it felt like hours had passed before she finally came to a stop, her legs burning beneath her long rubber coat as she fell to her knees.

The thunder cackled victoriously as Kagami's eyelids grew heavy like lead and as her body slumped forward on itself helplessly she let out one last pathetic whimper. "Someone…" she said softly. "Somebody…Konata…Help me…" And then the dark of the storm flooded into her eyes and thrust her into nothingness.

* * *

_Lucky Channel! _

**Akira: **Hiya Luckies! Nyaa! I'm super excited about the fifth episode today! Here's hoping we have a good one! I'm your voluptuous navigator: Akira Kogami!

**Minoru: **AHH! Akira-sama! Voluptuous is not a really um…elegant way of describing yourself.

**Akira: **Uguu…Shiraishi-san doesn't think I'm pretty! Is that what it is, Shiraishi-san?

**Minoru: **What? No of course not! That's not what I meant at all! You're gorgeous, Akira-sama! The prettiest girl in town—NO! In the world!

**Akira**: I'm glad you think so. And it looks like some of our fans thought so too! I was super happy when I got your confessions, guys! Just remember: just 'cuz it's not Valentine's Day anymore doesn't mean you can't confess your undying love to me!

**Minoru: **Well…actually…I don't think we should do the whole "confession of love" thing again. I mean, we got some really disturbing private messages about you…

**Akira: **Awww. Why do creepers have to ruin all the fun? Oh! Speaking of disturbing confessions, Shiraishi-san, how do you think Soup-kun is holding up?

**Minoru: **I…don't feel comfortable answering that.

**Akira: **Well why don't we just ask him ourselves? Soup-kun? How are you holding up after your embarrassing confessions slash coming-out experience?

**Minoru: **Well he's hiding under the desk so do we really even have to ask? Hang on. Soup-kun, are you growing mushrooms down there?

**Akira: **Ugh! That smells f***ing terrible!

**Soup: **Why do you care what I do with my spare time? I'm just "loony queen", right? A poof? A fairy? Isn't that what you called me, Minoru?

**Minoru: **Actually that was Akira-sama so…

**Soup: **…Yeah well…you were thinking it…

**Minoru: **Look Soup-kun I don't care that you're gay or anything. We can still be friends! I'm just not attracted to men in that way so don't take it personally—

**Soup: **I'm not gay…I've just been saving myself for you, Shiraishi-sama.

**Minoru: **…Uh…please don't call me that.

**Akira: **Yeah I've been meaning to talk to you about something, Soup. This chapter today was friggin' depressing. I mean Kagami's turning into a needy, clingy little brat, Yutaka collapsed from fever, Konata got blown away in the storm, Kagami gets abandoned in the middle of said storm and to top it all off she gets lost and consequently collapses from exhaustion in the middle of the road. What happened to the _humor/romance_ thing?

**Soup: **I inject my pain into my work. My therapist said it was the best way to get my life back on track…It redirects my attention from Shiraishi-sama's heart-wrenching rejection…

**Minoru: **Okay I don't feel okay with continuing this segment today. Can I leave? AHH! Hey! Soup-kun! Let go of my legs!

**Soup: **I would have butchered the whole world…if you would love me! (TWANG!) GYAA!

**Akira: **Well before we start going off on another really long Lucky Channel segment filled with pointless dialogue, how about we read some fan mail?

**Minoru: **Y-yeah! That will pick your spirits up, right Soup-kun? It always does!

**Soup: **…Nothing can alleviate this darkness weighing at my soul. Hence, anguish, hence…

**Minoru: **Eehhhh…Alright! So I guess we here at Lucky Channel would like to thank the following Luckies for their awesome reviews: _Gonstika, DoubleBoxEven, Hyperkinetic-Rabbity-Thing, Kitmaro, Yojimbo89, Arch3rher0, FanFicAA, LilithRyoka, Silencian, _and _ArmorBlade_! Thank you so much guys! Really! From the bottom of our hearts!

**Akira: **Oh joy! Let's read one of 'em, Shiraishi-san!

**Soup: **I want to read it…

**Minoru: **Huh?

**Soup: **Yeah. I want to read one. I'm the author; those reviews are addressed to me. Slide one under the desk so I can read it.

**Minoru: **O-okay. Here.

**Soup:** Thank you…Oh look…one from _Hyperkinetic-Rabbity-Thing_.

**Akira:** Oh yay! His reviews are always so much fun!

**Soup: **…Fun…heh…I remember…a time…when I used to have fun.

**Minoru: **…

**Akira: **...

**Soup: **But those days are long gone.

**Akira**: God, just read the damn review already. You're starting to depress me.

**Soup:** Fine. I'm sorry you find my heartbreak so upsetting. _Hyperkinetic-Rabbity-Thing_ writes: _"__Oh baby! I have to admit that I was wondering how well this story would continue to progress as it entered the land of truly unique material. But I can now say, without any reservation, that the writing has turned out to be extremely impressive. Yes, I am genuinely astonished at just how yuritastic that dream was. Ok, so maybe I'm a sucker for romantic stories involving these girls. Maybe I'm not the hardest soul to please, but damn! That went a little beyond romantic. That was straight up hot!"_

**Minoru: **Wow! Thanks for sharing, Rabbity! I'm glad you enjoyed the beginnings of the romance in this fic! I'm sure Soup-kun did his best to make sure the dream sequence was as enjoyable and as "hot" as could be!

**Soup: **If you think that was hot then you should have seen what I had planned for _us,_ Shiraishi-sama…

**Akira: **I'm done.

**Minoru: **Wait? Akira-sama? Where are you going?

**Akira: **I don't know. With any luck I might run into a priest who can remove that horrifying image from my brain. And if that doesn't work, I'm going to go hit up the bar and drown the bad thoughts away. You two just stay here and enjoy each other.

**Minoru: ** No! Don't leave me alone with him!

**Soup: **…

**Minoru: **…

**Soup: **…Do you think I'm pretty, Shiraishi-sama?

**Minoru: **W-wait for me, Akira-sama! (SCOOT!)

**Soup: **Hmm…looks like that leaves me to close the show. (Sigh) As always, I would strongly encourage all of you to leave a review and…Oh what's the point? What do reviews matter in a loveless world where the only thing that is constant is death? I guess I'll just end this with an announcement. So yeah, the reason I've been uploading so slowly lately is because I'm in a play so I've been pulling _really_ late nights trying to juggle rehearsals and homework. I haven't really had the time to work on this fic. But luckily, this coming week is show week so after that's done you'll all have my undivided attention again. Although, that also means that if I don't get out chapter six by this Monday then I probably won't have the time or energy to update this son-of-a-bitch for another week or two cuz we'll be doing shows for a while. Just thought I'd give you guys a fair warning. So…yeah, guess I'll see you later. Byeeeee…


	6. Chapter Six: The Tempest

Chapter Six

The Tempest

Really, the chances of her dying that day had been pretty high. Her face was planted against the pavement and the rainwater was washing against it. Time and time again, an unconscious Kagami sputtered and coughed in her slumber, her body's primal defenses doing whatever they could to keep her alive but those same defenses were wearing thin. They knew that if help did not come soon, their host would not last long. It was only by some happy chance that a young, blue haired high-school girl came strolling by at that moment—or rather, she came flying by, a red umbrella pulling her like a horse pulls a chariot.

"Weeeeeeeee!" she laughed as she skillfully angled the umbrella downward so the wind brought her to a graceful landing on the sidewalk. "Thirty seconds!" she declared, readjusting the grey rubber cap on her blue head. "A new record! Man there hasn't been a storm this good in a while. Just a shame I didn't have time to show Kagamin and the others my special _Windrider-Jutsu_! I wasn't expecting to lift off so soon." She puffed out non-existent chest proudly, reveling in her fantastical "wind riding" prowess when she felt a sneeze coming on. "Achoo!" she bellowed, wiping her nose. "Still, I've probably been out here a bit too long. I don't wanna' get a cold…" She turned back up the road, her trained emerald eyes penetrating the thick wall of rain and mist, and she frowned. "But I don't wanna' go back to school either."

Up the road. Down the road. Her head continued to whip back and forth in both directions indecisively. "Fun. School. Fun. School. Fun. School…" she chanted with each alternating glance. "Hmmm…I wish I could ride the wind back to school but it's still going the other way…" she grumbled despondently. "Maybe I could just play a little bit longer—no. Must. Resist. Do the right thing, Konata. Just a few more months of this crap and then you can go off and do whatever you want. Just a few more months. A few more months." She folded her umbrella for good this time and stowed it away in her bag, deciding she would have to rely on the cover of her rain cap to shield her from the storm. "I wonder how far away I am from the school at this point?" pondered the otaku aloud as she stepped forward against the way of the wind. In spite of all her boasting of being a Wind Rider, the wind she claimed to tame knocked her off her feet pretty easily when she wasn't moving with it.

She felt her long baggy raincoat snapped in the wind the instant she took her first step against it and immediately it pushed her back, her tiny shoes sliding across the slippery sidewalk with both heels down, her face darkened by a look of irritation all the while. However her backwards water-skating act was brought to an end when a rather large obstruction in the sidewalk clipped her at the back of her feet, sending her toppling backwards onto what she could instantly tell was a human being. Even Konata was a little freaked out when she felt the mass rising and falling under the small of her back. She wriggled like a fish in her efforts to get back up and off this thing—this breathing _thing_ whoever it was—and she heard the sound of rubber coat squeaking against rubber coat. She froze when she found her fingers had wrapped themselves around something soft, smooth and familiar…and purple. She saw hundreds of lavender strands of hair all fanned out around the unconscious girl's head which was face down on the cold ground.

It took Konata a second to recognize Kagami without her twin-tails but once she did, she bolted up like she had just been spurned in the rear by a cattle-prod. "Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!" she cried. "K-Kagami!"

The girl did not answer. Konata had not expected her to but nonetheless her lack of reply terrified her. She got down on her knees and shoved Kagami's motionless body over on its back so her smooth white face was facing the cloudy black sky. Konata didn't know what to do! She grabbed Kagami's wrist and tried to feel for a pulse but got nothing. "Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no…" she chanted in dread. An infectious cold took root in her chest at that moment, starting off as a small little ice-cube chilling her core but each time she examined Kagami for signs of life and came back with none that dreadful cold spider-webbed through the rest of her body.

Her wrist returned no pulse. She could not feel any breath rise from her now pale blue lips. And she could no longer see or feel her chest rising and falling like it had when she fell on her. Had she…died in that short of time?

But then the warmth of hope rekindled.

So her breath and her pulse had only recently stopped? So that meant there was still some time left—time to revive her. But what to do? Where to start? Was she supposed to do mouth to mouth? Pound her chest? Do the Heimlich? No, no that's for when people are choking. Isn't it? Or maybe she could strap a lightning rod to her chest and try and to zap her heart back into action!

No. That would only make her even more dead.

She had nothing! She wasn't even one hundred percent sure Kagami was truly dead. She could have just been reading the signs wrong. If she did anything to try and "revive her" she could just end up killing her and she was so scared of doing just that that she couldn't even move. So she did the one thing she did best when presented with a problem she couldn't tackle virtually or by brute force. She pleaded for help

"Help…" she murmured, her mouth moving on its own. "H-help…Help! Help! Help!"

Lightning came. And thunder followed, resounding with a tremendous boom that was so loud that it even startled Konata amidst the stress now occupying her brain. It was like someone had fired a cannon right next to her ears and her hands quickly flew up to them, to guard them from the still rolling thunder clap. She waited a few moments before she could be sure the thunder was gone and slowly let her hands fall to her sides and the first thing she heard then was the sound of coughing. Her whole being exploded with warmth and relief when she looked down to behold Kagami hacking and wheezing before her until with one a final cough she dislodged the water from her windpipe, sending it trickling down the sides of her face so at last her chest resumed its subtle swaying.

Konata had no idea how fast her heart had been beating until that moment. It was racing so hastily she thought she was having a heart attack. Once she calmed down, she immediately set her mind on her next course of action, unwittingly leaving Kagami's face exposed and in the open, her open mouth still collecting water droplets.

"_I can't make it back to school…" _she thought anxiously. _"I can't move against the wind and I'll be able to move her faster if the wind is on my side." _She didn't notice as Kagami coughed up another mouthful of water. _"Think! I have to move her and I have to move her now! She needs to be…she needs to be." _What did she need to be? _"Um…dry. Warm. Dry and warm and…" _Dry and warm would have to do for now, for Kagami began to start wheezing again and much more loudly this time so Konata could hear her. She didn't have time to think. She needed to act and she acted in the first way she could think of. She did her best to heave Kagami up on her butt and rest her weight on her shoulder like an infant so she could begin patting her back to try and force the liquid out of her throat. Eventually, she stopped coughing and for a second Konata feared it was because she was dead but she was comforted by the feeling of Kagami's chest rising and falling against her own. _"Mental note: keep water out of Kagami's mouth."_

_

* * *

_

The darkness faded. Gradually. Slowly. Painfully. But it faded nonetheless. And the light that greeted her deep blue eyes was not a welcome one to Kagami. It flashed most terribly, striking a new and unfamiliar fear into her core that she had only just discovered that morning. And the sound that followed was even more terrifying. It rumbled and roared, drowning all other noise and filling her bones with shakes and aches. Her body instantly curled up around something slick and rubbery. She did not yet dare open her eyes but she let her hands travel along the surface her stomach was resting on. She could feel something shifting and moving beneath the rubbery texture, and when the thunder died she heard someone groaning. "K-Konata?" she murmured, eyes still closed and body still trembling.

Whoever had been grumbling did not respond. "Konata…" she said again. She felt light, like she was being carried off to sea on a bony, rubbery raft of sorts. "Dad?" She couldn't help but think of her father when she felt a pair of strong (yet dainty) hands readjust her still limp body. "Where am I?" She realized her long hair, which was now let down, was dangling over her brow. Her hands traced the contours of whatever she had woken up on and a part of her realized she was being carried, or more accurately she was slung over someone's back, the rain clapping as it bounced off the backside of her heavy raincoat. "Ugh…my head…"

"Would you stop complaining?" snapped Konata's voice loudly, for she knew now it was Konata carrying her, sounding labored with heavy breathing. "How do you think I feel? You're really, _really_ heavy!"

The next thing Kagami noticed was the growing pain in her chest that got worse every time her bearer moved, Konata's shoulders digging deep into the tsundere's rib cage with every step she made. "Ow…ow…"

"What?" Konata was sounding impatient.

"My…chest…really hurts."

She sighed in response. "Hang on. We're almost there."

Kagami didn't know if she could hang on. Her ribs felt like they were going to snap under the acute pressure being applied to them by Konata's shoulders if she didn't get set down soon. "I can't breathe…" she gasped suddenly, to which Konata responded by picking up her pace and consequently increasing the rate at which her shoulders drove up into her torso.

"Hang on! Hang on! Hang on!" she chanted. Kagami heard the rain grow quiet and she could no longer feel the damp cold beating against the back of her neck. The two of them stopped suddenly. "Okay…how do I do this? Um…" Konata struggled as she tried to think of a way to gently lay her human package on the ground as soon as possible. Even in her exhausted state, Kagami could feel the blue girl's legs wobbling unsteadily. "Alright let's see if this works. I'll just let you sink down like this and—GYA!" Her loud, ear splitting "GYA!" came as Kagami felt the mound she was resting on drop out from under her chest, sending her plummeting down on top of Konata's head who was sprawled out on the grassy earth. She felt the tension against her ribs vanish slowly and she inhaled a gloriously long breath, rolling over onto the lush grass as she opened her eyes for the first time and came face to face with a canopy of thick green leaves several feet above her head. "Konata…" she mumbled looking around for her friend. "Konata? Where are you?"

She saw a dark green mound next to her pick itself up, revealing a very cross looking otaku whose eyes were narrowed with irritation. "Heavy!" she declared in an accusatory fashion. "You! Are! Too! HEAVY!"

Kagami, still half unconscious, gave her a befuddled look. "Were you carrying me?"

"Yes I was carrying you! I had you slung around my back so your face would be out of the rain! It was like wearing a bull for a scarf!"

Kagami's eyelids drooped low like a curtain and for a moment Konata was afraid she was going to lose consciousness again. "You hurt my chest," she stated.

"You have no right to complain," growled the blunette through clenched teeth. "My legs are still shaking and I'm not even standing up. See! Look at 'em! They're shaking in sheer terror from the memory of having to carry you!"

Kagami smiled. "I don't see anything." Her voice was quiet and distant as she rubbed her chest tenderly, as if that would somehow remedy the pain that had taken root there.

Konata frowned and scooted closer to her beneath the tree. "Yeah well I can see you're still shaking plenty," she observed. "Not that you have as much reason as I do but I guess you've gotta' be kinda cold, huh?"

"A little," her blue eyes locked on Konata who she sat up beside her.

"Hmmm..." she picked up two twigs and got a shimmer in her eye. "Oh! I just had a great idea!" An idea, Kagami knew, that would get them nowhere.

"What are you doing?" she asked as Konata began furiously rubbing the two sticks together.

"I'm gonna start a fire!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Kagami's eyebrows grew heavy with irritation. She could feel some of her energy returning, as if the sheer idiocy of Konata's "idea" had irritated her senses back into action. "Uh…I think it's too wet to start a fire, Konata."

_Snap! _"Damnit. They broke," she said sadly, presenting the shattered remains of her would be tinder to her. "Paste it, Mommy!"

"Is that supposed to be another lame reference?"

"Maybe," said the otaku coyly. "And why do you sound so bitter all the sudden? I was just trying to keep you warm."

"If you were that worried about me being cold why didn't you just give me your jacket or something?"

Konata blinked and looked down at her raincoat. "But…if I did that then _I _wouldn't be warm."

"Ah whatever. Keep it. You're so short it probably wouldn't do me much good anyways." Shivering, she brought her knees up to her chest and winced as her ribs cried out in anguish. "Ouch! Jeez, Konata! You really screwed me up when you were carrying me! You have really bony shoulders, you know that?"

"Well sorry for trying to carry you at all," she grumbled. "I would have left you there if I'd known you were going to be in this bad of a mood once you really came to."

"Left me?" Her simple irritation erupted into full blown rage. "Hang on a second! I came out in this storm to find _you! _I thought you got carried away in the storm!"

"Nu-uh. I'm a wind-rider, Kagamin! I let the wind carry me away."

"You let it?" her voice was trembling with fury.

"Jya!" she replied, as if it should have been obvious. "I mean…I guess I didn't really mean to get carried off right then and there. The wind was stronger than I imagined but I was fine! I was just playing!"

"P-playing?"

"Mmhmm. I do that all the time during wind storms. It's an old Izumi secret technique developed by my dad when he and my mom were kids. They used to go outside and have races with umbrellas and stuff. He found out that if you angle your umbrella _just right_ during a storm like this you can get it to lift you off and when you're really good you can even get it to do small turns and start and stop on a whim! It's a lot of fun! Dad got too heavy for it after a while but my mom—"

"You idiot!" bellowed Kagami with an unnaturally powerful fervor in her voice that made Konata's story stop short with a wince. "I can't believe you! I thought you were in serious trouble back there, Konata! Tsukasa and Yutaka too! We were all really worried! Yutaka even ended up getting sick looking for you! And Tsukasa had to take her back to the school and tell everybody—ah jeez! I bet the whole school is out there looking for you too! By now they're all probably more lost than we are! Why didn't you tell us you were just 'playing' before you took off?"

"I-I hadn't been expecting to lift off so soon like I said…"

"I was scared out of my mind, Konata! I seriously thought you were going to die out there! And then I had to go out and look for you by myself and then _I _almost died! And for what? For your little game? I just…I can't believe you would do something so thoughtless!"

"I…I…" The guilt. It was unbearable. Why after all these blissful years of living guilt-free was she all the sudden starting to get guilt-tripped left and right like this? It was like her conscience was making up for lost time or something.

"Come to think of it…You were riding you're umbrella when you found me, weren't you?"

"Um…yes?" she said it like it was a question, speaking the truth even though she somehow knew it would only get her into a bigger hole.

"So we were both heading in the same direction? We were both going the same way and I somehow managed to get in front of you! I probably passed you up when I was looking for you! Didn't you hear me calling your name?"

"The storm was really loud. I guess I could have heard you but…I couldn't be sure if it was you or just the wind."

"So you did hear me?"

"…Kind of…"

"Yes or no. Did you hear someone calling your name? _Yes_ or _no_?"

Konata's eyes widened in shock. "I…yes. But I didn't know it was you, okay? It could have been anyone."

"That's no excuse."

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Kagami. I messed up. Just…c'mon." She risked lowering her head a few inches closer towards the tsundere's reach so she could get a better look at her face. "Please don't cry."

Kagami was more surprised to hear that than Konata had been to see it. Her hand flew up to her face and amongst the cold wetness that was left over from her bout with the rain there was also something warm and damp rolling down her cheeks. Why was she crying? Konata should be the one getting all weepy-eyed. Not her.

Once again, her senses got another walloping from Mother Nature's good ol' "one, two" attack: a blinding flash of lightning ripping across the sky followed by a winding blast of thunder. She couldn't stop herself as she yelped and let more tears spring forth from her eyes, rolling down the length of her cheeks on either side to meet at the base of her chin.

"You're shaking again," Konata said slowly.

"We need to move!" cried Kagami. "Now!"

"What? Why? We're nice and dry under this tree and I worked my butt off to get you here."

"No. Seriously, Konata. A tree is one of the worst possible places you could be during a lightning storm. It's like sitting under a giant lightning rod! I can't believe I didn't realize that sooner. We need to find someplace else." Even as she said this, Kagami didn't look like she had any intention of moving. Her eyes and ears were still clamped shut tightly as she buried her face in her knees.

"Are you scared of thunder, Kagami?"

"Shut up! Just get us out of here!"

Konata couldn't help but grinning in spite of the apparently serious danger they were in. She was cute even when she was scared—no! _Especially_ when she was scared. "Fine," said Konata finally. "I know just the place."

"Then let's go! Hurry!" she commanded, still not moving a muscle.

"I'm not carrying you again," protested Konata flatly.

Kagami picked her head up at long last, her eyes so blue and watery it would have put the ocean to shame. "I…I knew that." She stood up with such reluctance, like she was afraid any sudden movements would make the thunder lash out at her. And her suspicions seemed to hold true because just as she finally stood completely upright the thunder beat her back down again onto her butt. "I can't do this!" she screamed, throwing her hands over her head.

As much as she resented the thunder for traumatizing her Kagami so relentlessly, a part of Konata loved it for rooting out her dere side like this. "Come on," she said, holding out her hand. "The sooner we get moving the sooner we can start getting dry."

Kagami wasted no time in grabbing Konata's hand, squeezing it so tightly one might think she was about to give birth. "Ow! Ow! Ow! My haaaaand!"

"Sorry," she said, loosening her grip. "Can we get going now?"

"Sure," said Konata, her hand throbbing. "Just as soon as you stand up."

Kagami looked down at her legs. Apparently she hadn't realized they were still sprawled out on the ground. "Right." Her legs wobbled dangerously as she struggled to her feet but with surprising strength and dexterity Konata quickly caught her just as she was about to fall.

"I guess this is what you were talking about when you said moe in real life is more annoying than anything else…" grumbled the otaku.

Kagami frowned. "Just be quiet and get me out of here."

And with that, Konata guided her out from under the cover of the tree and the two of them were instantly greeted by the icy rain. "This way!" called out Konata over the storm, giving Kagami's hand a reassuring squeeze to calm her quivering as they started forward.

Kagami knew that at that moment she must have looked like a real idiot. Like a scared little kid. She knew that once this was all over Konata would probably never let her forget it. But she didn't care. Konata could tease her all she wanted and think whatever she pleased about her. Her only concern was getting out of this storm. Find someplace quiet where the thunder couldn't get to her. Where she could be safe. And she wanted to get to that place with as little stress as possible so when Konata stopped and demand that Kagami open up her eyes before she trip on something she refused adamantly. Somehow, the shadowy world this storm had left her in felt darker than the one she was faced with when her eyes shut out all other lights. She didn't want to see anything, and the entire time Konata was leading her to safety her eyes remained sealed shut and her mind wandered to brighter places.

"Alright. We're here!" proclaimed Konata at long last as she lead her up a small flight of steps.

"Can I look now?"

Konata groaned in irritation. "I never said you couldn't look…"

She opened her eyes and found herself standing in a large pavilion. Inside it was almost completely dry and also surprisingly warm. "Where are we?"

"At the park! Ryoo Park!"

"I don't think I've ever been to this area before…Is this pavilion new?"

Konata sat down on the hooked bench that curved along the border of the pavilion, whipping off her rain cap and wringing the water out of her long blue hair. "No. It's pretty old. It was here when my dad proposed to my mom."

"Oh," she said, looking around and trying to figure out why she hadn't noticed this spot before. It was pretty nice and she reckoned (judging by how much uphill walking she had just done with Konata) that it must have a very stunning view of the rest of the park. _"I might even start coming out here after school to do my homework. I could see myself working in a place like this," _she thought with a smile.

"Like it?"

"Yeah," she responded. "So I'm guessing your dad showed you this place."

"Mmmhmmm! Excellent detective work, Kagamin!"

Kagami frowned. _"You don't have to sound so sarcastic about it."_

"Yeah, my dad used to take me up here some of the time when I was a kid. He hasn't been back here in a while though and come to think of it neither have I."

She took a seat next to Konata, smiling fondly at that rare look of nostalgia on her face. "So you said your dad proposed to your mom here?"

"Oh no. I said it was here _when_ he proposed. You probably can't see it but he asked her to marry him over there on the other side of the lake." Kagami stared as the young girl continued to wring the water from her hair; feeling slightly amused by the routinely absent way Konata went about doing it.

"Did your mom have hair as long as yours, Konata?"

She gave her a sideways glance. "Well yeah, Kagami, you've seen pictures of her. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. I was actually just wondering if maybe you grew it out like that to honor her memory or something."

Konata shrugged. "I guess you could say that although I really don't have much of a memory of her to honor," she said with a sad chuckle. "I do remember her hair though. It was long and blue like mine but looking back I think it was probably much softer and more manageable than what I got stuck with. When I was a kid I don't think I meant to grow it out like hers, though. I just hated getting my hair cut and my dad didn't force me to. I remember going down for breakfast one day when I was really little and Dad saw me sitting at the table and accidently called me 'Kanata.' He said it was because my hair was so much like hers. Still…it can be a pain to manage sometimes."

"If it's such a pain why don't you cut it?"

Konata grinned at her knowingly, understanding full well what she expected her to say. Something about her mother, of course, and that was the reason why she kept it so long. But really, if Kagami didn't know the answer to that question then she wasn't going to tell her. "It's because it makes such a cozy blanket!" she teased, throwing her wet hair around her torso so it fell to the tips of her toes. "Observe! In the winter times when the Kotatsu isn't handy I just curl up in my hair and take a nap. It can get pretty toasty in here too!"

"Can't say I was expecting that," said Kagami, half laughing.

"Okay so maybe that's not the _main_ reason," Konata acknowledged, "but it's a good one. See? It really is comfy." In the blink of an eye Konata swished her hair around and let it fall over Kagami, covering most of her body quite effectively. At first, the lilac haired girl was a little angry if not just flat out grossed out when she saw Konata's long blue hair collect on her lap but her silent objections to the prospect quickly fell away. It was actually kind of warm…and soft. "Snuggly, huh?" went on Konata proudly.

"I don't know if you'd call it that," she said with a blush, "snuggly" being the exact word she would have described it with. "It's kind of knotted actually."

"Hmph! Well that's the wind's fault. I pride myself in my expert grooming, Kagamin."

She ran her hands through Konata's hair as she bundled it up into a big cord of blueness, trying to work out all the knots as gently as she could and for the first time since the train ride that morning Kagami did not flinch quite so terribly when the thunder sounded above. Still, she squirmed enough to get Konata's attention.

"You know I never figured you would be the one to get all jumpy at thunder," she said, doing her best to disguise the unbearable enjoyment of having her tsundere's soft, dainty fingers petting her hair so tenderly.

"I'm not!" she said defensively, accidently giving Konata's hair a particularly hard yank as she continued to de-knotify it. "I mean, not usually. I think I'm just tired from last night's homework spree. It's got me on edge."

"Oh c'mon Kagamin you were beside yourself down there a few minutes ago. I've never seen anyone get that scared over anything. You looked like you couldn't even move. I think it's more complicated than just you being tired."

She shrugged with a yawn. "I don't know. I have no idea what's wrong with me today. I never used to be scared of thunder storms at all! And now all the sudden I just…snapped." Konata could feel tremors run up the length of her hair as Kagami began shaking. "I'm sorry, by the way, for making you put up with me back there. I was being a real baby."

"Don't worry about it," said Konata with a brief glance towards their surroundings where the rain was falling hard as ever. "So you sure you're okay? I was so exhausted from carrying you I forgot to ask how you were doing after you woke up."

"Yeah I'm better now. I'm just a little tired."

"You wanna' lay down then? I think we're going to be here for a while so you might as well rest up."

"I don't know if I can get to sleep with all this noise. And I'm pretty cold."

"Hair," said Konata simply.

"Huh?"

"Like I said, my hair makes a bitchen blanket. Use it."

"Ugh. Konata that's a little gross. I'm not going to sleep in your wet hair."

"Sure ya' are! C'mere and let me show you how it's done." Konata scooted in closer to Kagami so that they were sitting shoulder to shoulder and threw her thick blue hair around her. "You just wrap some of it around your shoulder like so and let the rest fall in your lap. See? Snug as a bug in a rug."

Kagami couldn't argue with that. Although the hair didn't offer very good coverage it did make her feel oddly warm and secure. Or maybe that was just because of how close she was sitting to Konata. Either way her body was heating up and it was becoming difficult to fight the drowsiness. "Are you sure it's okay?"

Konata was blushing like mad. Kagami was so close to her! So close! Just a little more bodily contact and they could be snuggling! "Yup. I don't mind. Besides, your body's like a big warm marshmallow. OW! Hey don't tug on my hair!"

"One fat joke for one hair tug. I think that's fair," she said as her head slowly drooped to the side, resting on Konata's shoulder. She seemed to be feeling quite comfortable for a fleeting second before her face hardened and she sat up straight again. "Oh I forgot…you're too bony."

"My shoulders are not that bony!"

"Are too. My ribs are still sore by the way."

"You're just too sensitive…" groused Konata. "Fine if you're going to be like that then you can just use my lap."

"What? Use your lap for what?"

"As a pillow, Kagamin! Man, you really are slow today. OW!" she had just earned her hair another sharp tug. "Stop doing that!"

"You actually want me to use you for a lap-pillow?"

"Yes!" assured Konata most eagerly. "I mean—it's not that I _want _you to," -**lies-** "but you're tired and I feel bad for making you look for me so I guess I owe you."

"Hmmm…I guess you do." She hesitated as her head began its downward descent towards Konata's lap. "But you can't tell anyone about this!"

"Cross my little heart," she swore, her "little heart" about to overflow with excitement.

Normally she would have been skeptical but right now she was too exhausted to question the legitimacy of her vow so she gave into temptation and let her head plop down again, this time landing squarely at the center of Konata's lap with the otaku's hair now draped over her waist. "Thank you, Konata," she said.

"It's really not a big deal. My dad does this all the time."

Suddenly, Kagami felt just a smidgen bit more uncomfortable. _"C-creepy!" _

"Uh…that's not what I meant," said Kagami. "And…gross. I meant thank you for saving me. I know I was being ungrateful back there. I'm sorry."

"Hey, hey, hey now," Konata was ever so glad Kagami wasn't facing her, lest her incandescent blush be discovered, "I should be the one apologizing to you, Kagamin. I wouldn't have had to save you if I didn't make you come searching for me in the first place."

"True. But I guess that still doesn't give me the right to snap at you. Does it? Especially not after you took care of me." Kagami's toes wiggled nervously in her boots and her fingers unconsciously began stroking Konata's blue hair nervously without her notice.

"Let's just call it even I guess," proposed Konata.

And with that, Kagami nodded and finally let sleep take her.

* * *

_Lucky Channel!_

**Akira: **Hiya Luckies! Behold! I bring to you the sixth episode of Lucky Channel!

**Minoru: **Praise be to Dionysus!

**Akira: **Well said, Shiraishi-san! As always I'm your lovable host, the apple of your eye, Akira Kogami!

**Minoru: **And I am her willing co-host, Minoru Shiraishi. Exuberant to be here as usual.

**Akira: **Exuberant? My, my, my! That's a big word, Shiraishi-san. Trying to win over even more fans by expending your vocabulary?

**Minoru: **Er…you mean _expanding_ and no it's not like that at all. Exuberant is just the word of the day or so my calendar tells me.

**Akira: **A word of the day calendar? You have a word of the day calendar?

**Minoru: **Mmmhmm.

**Akira: **Why do you have a word of the day calendar?

**Minoru: **It makes me feel _**exuberant**_! Ow! Ow! Ow my head!

**Akira: **Don't pretend like you didn't see that coming, Shiraishi-san. Speaking of big words, I think our friend Soup-kun has a few words to say. Don't you, Soup-kun?

**Soup: **Yeah I guess I do. Thanks for the introduction by the way (you wretched little devil). Um…sorry about the lateness of this chapter and sorry if it came across as um…how do I put this…?

**Minoru: **Flowery?

**Akira: **Pretentious?

**Minoru: **Confusing?

**Akira: **Gay?

**Soup: **Er….yeah okay fine. Sorry if this chapter came across as flowery, pretentious, confusing…or gay.

**Akira: **It felt mammoth gay to me!

**Soup: **I resent that remark… Anyways, the reason for it being that way is the same reason why this chapter is so late…my play. See, it's a Shakespeare so I've been reading, reciting, and hearing a lot of old English speak and it's beginning to rub off on me. You may not think it's bad now but trust me, the more time I spend on this play the funkier this fic is going to sound so I apologize in advance for anything weird sounding.

**Akira: **Oh it's a Shakespeare…Hmmm. That explains it.

**Soup: **Explains what?

**Akira: **Your preference in lovers.

**Soup: **I told you I'm not gay! I'm just madly in love with Minoru!

**Minoru: **Oh God…Glargh!

**Akira**: Sit down, Shiraishi! If I can sit through twenty minutes with him then so can you! And Soup! You can stop talking right now!

**Soup: **Not until you let me out of this closet!

**Akira: **No. Only you can let yourself out of the closet.

**Soup: **You locked the f***ing door and parked my car in front of it! How can I "let myself out"?

**Akira: **It's a metaphor!

**Soup: **What in the hell is that supposed to mean?

**Akira: **A metaphor for your gayness!

**Soup: **This has nothing to do with that! Does it? This is about me bringing you the wrong ice cream!

**Akira: **I wanted Häagen-Dazs. Your came back with Macadamia Nut.

**Soup: **SO?

**Akira: **I don't like Macadamia Nut.

**Soup: **Minoru! Minoru please you've got to let me out of here!

**Minoru: **Well I—

**Akira: **Hey Shiraishi.

**Minoru: **Hm? What?

**Akira: **(Slap!) Pay attention!

**Minoru: **Y-yes Akira-sama! S-so I think it's about time we read some reviews!

**Soup: **Minoru! Please let me out!

**Akira: **Ignore…him…and…read…a…damn…review.

**Minoru: **W-with pleasure! We got one here from _Flygon Master_.

**Soup: **Akira-sama! Please! I'll get what you want! I'll get you a whole ice-cream truck of it!

**Akira:** Oh goody! Another review from _Flygon_! Read it, Shiraishi-san!

**Minoru: **Yes!

**Soup: **I have to pee!

**Akira:** Hurry up, Shiraishi-san. I'm getting impatient.

**Minoru: **Yes! Yes! Yes! Um…Flygon writes: _"It keeps getting better and better!—"_

**Soup: **I can't hold it in!

**Akira: **Shut it!

**Minoru: **Um…A-Akira-sama?

**Akira: **Keep reading, Shiraishi! If you hesitate then he wins!

**Soup: **I'm running out of air!

**Minoru: **Er…okay. Continuing: _"Lol I love this story, with that said I want to say that I had to read the end a few times to fully understand what hap—" _

**Soup: **It's dark in here!

**Akira:** Shut it!

**Soup: **It's dark and I see spiders!

**Akira: **Shut your dirty mouth!

**Minoru: **I don't know if I can do this—

**Akira: **KEEP READING!

**Minoru: **Yipe! _"—h-happened because it was a little hard to tell who was being focused but it was a great chapter and I hope you keep this story interesting to read!"_ W-what an excellent review F-Fl-Flyg—GAAAAAHHH!

**Akira: **STOP CRYING, SHIRAISHI!

**Soup: **One of the spiders bit me!

**Akira: **Soup, I will beat you lifeless! Shut your filthy little mouth you insolent whoreson!

**Minoru: **I can't take all this tension! (Weep!) It's too much!

**Soup: **Someone! Anyone! Save me from this hell!

**Akira: **That's it. (Jingle-jangle)

**Minoru: **(Sob) W-where are you going? Are those Soup's car keys?

**Akira: **Yup.

**Minoru: **What are you doing with them?

**Akira: **I'm going to run Soup the frick over with his own car.

**Soup: **W-what?

**Akira: **(VROOM! VROOM!) Scream all you want, Soup! No one's gonna hear you now!

**Soup: **Minoru! Stop her! STOP HER! (CRASH!)

**Akira: **I'm gonna decorate my den with your carcass!

**Minoru: **Akira-sama! Wait! Wait! WAAAIT!


End file.
